Always wondered this I see posters in my school about it too
In: 10208
Anaesthetist here. Fun fact: almost all short chain volatile organic molecules can cause changes to the brain. Our general anaesthetic drugs such as sevoflurane, have a few carbon atoms in a chain, and a low boiling point so they create vapour at room temperatures. The solvents in markers and glue are also short carbon chain molecules. When you breathe them in, they dissolve in your blood and travel to the brain. We are not quite sure how they work in the brain. Very likely they dissolve in the cell membrane of the neuron cells and disrupt the electrical activity if those cells. Even alcohol does something similar – it has 2 carbons in its chain and is volatile.
The trick in anaesthesia is to find a molecule that has these properties but is not toxic to tissues such as brain and liver cells. The drugs we use in anaesthesia are completely reversible, once they wash out of your system, the cell functions return to how they were previously. Glue and marker pens won’t have that safety profile.
Latest Answers