Teen Fatally Overdoses on Deodorant Spray

A British teen who was found collapsed on the landing outside his room at a children's home last August died from using too much spray-on deodorant, the Telegraph reports. "He sprayed it all over himself and succumbed to the effects of the gas," Kent Online quotes the coroner as saying. A doctor says 16-year-old Thomas Townsend died from "circulation collapse caused by butane gas inhalation." The cause of death came to light at an inquest this week, reports Metro.co.uk. “He would not take showers but would stand there with a deodorant and spray half the can on him," says the teen's mother. "Then he would spray aftershave to cover up BO."

Police found 42 cans of deodorant, hair spray, and other products in Townsend's room at the children's home near Folkestone, Kent Online reports. His mother says she didn't know her son had so many cans but says he was "a big hoarder." Authorities say Townsend, who had been in a foster home for five years, had a history of self-harm, but he wasn't suicidal or abusing drugs or alcohol. No alcohol or drugs were found in Townsend's system, notes the Telegraph, and his death was ruled accidental. Those who knew him say he had turned a corner and was preparing to start college the following month, Kent Online reports. (How one man has gone 12 years without bathing.)