Coroner gives solvent advice

A coroner yesterday urged parents to warn their children of the dangers of solvent abuse.

The York coroner, Donald Coverdale, issued the warning when he recorded a verdict of accidental death on a seven-year-old boy who is believed to have been Britain's youngest victim of solvent abuse.

He said the case of Christopher Smith, from York - who inhaled a tyre repair glue known as Special Cement which contained the deadly chemical trichloroethylene - showed that children were never too young to be told of the dangers of glue sniffing.