{"id":18993,"date":"2025-04-21T17:13:20","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T16:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=18993"},"modified":"2025-05-20T19:18:39","modified_gmt":"2025-05-20T18:18:39","slug":"laughing-gas-crisis-nitrous-oxide-misuse-and-abuse-is-rising-in-the-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2025\/04\/laughing-gas-crisis-nitrous-oxide-misuse-and-abuse-is-rising-in-the-u-s\/","title":{"rendered":"Laughing gas crisis: Nitrous oxide misuse and abuse is rising in the U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"
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by Rodielon Putol – Earth.com staff writer – 04-06-2025<\/span><\/h1>\n
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Nitrous oxide, better known as laughing gas, is making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Despite warnings from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), more people across the U.S. are misusing the substance \u2013 often with tragic results.<\/p>\n

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Once a common feature in dental offices and whipped cream canisters, this gas is now tied to a sharp increase in poisonings, hospitalizations, and even deaths.<\/p>\n

Researchers from the\u00a0University of Mississippi\u00a0and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are investigating this growing trend, sounding the alarm about its risks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a chemical that is commonly used as a\u00a0sedative\u00a0or anesthetic, but what we\u2019re seeing is a rise in recreational use,\u201d said Andrew Yockey, University of Mississippi assistant professor of public health.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what we\u2019re also seeing is also a rise in hospitalizations, in poisonings and in deaths.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nitrous oxide deaths are doubling<\/span><\/h2>\n

According to the 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, over 13 million Americans have misused nitrous oxide at some point in their lives.<\/p>\n

And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that deaths from nitrous oxide poisoning have more than doubled \u2013 rising over 110% between 2019 and 2023.<\/p>\n

While the number of deaths remains relatively low compared to other\u00a0drugs, the speed of the increase is cause for concern.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe preliminary findings of our study are that deaths have remained fairly small compared to other dangerous substances,\u201d said Rachel Hoopsick, assistant professor of health and kinesiology at the\u00a0University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBut what we\u2019re seeing is that over the last couple of years, those rates have increased exponentially. At that continued rate, we could be looking at a much larger problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why nitrous oxide slips under the radar<\/span><\/h2>\n

Whippets \u2013 another name for nitrous oxide canisters \u2013 have long been used for a quick, euphoric high.<\/p>\n

But the side effects are no joke. The FDA warns that repeated inhalation can lead to\u00a0brain damage, frostbite, numbness, blood clots, and even paralysis.<\/p>\n

Despite these warnings, the gas remains widely accessible and largely unregulated.<\/p>\n

Unlike many controlled substances, nitrous oxide is easy to buy online or at local shops. A simple search brings up brightly packaged, flavored options \u2013 clearly designed to catch the attention of younger audiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cThink back to big\u00a0tobacco; they deliberately targeted young people with cartoons, fun flavors and flashy colors,\u201d said Hoopsick. \u201cThat is a parallel we\u2019re seeing now with nitrous oxide.\u201d<\/p>\n

The product is often marketed as a whipped cream propellant. But some of the available options make the culinary angle hard to believe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really doubt anyone is buying flavored nitrous oxide to make blueberry mango whipped cream,\u201d Yockey said. \u201cOr \u2018Bomb Pop.\u2019 But I can have it delivered to my house in a couple of days.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Marketing tactics that mimic big tobacco<\/span><\/h2>\n

What\u2019s even more alarming is how sellers downplay the risks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have evidence that nitrous oxide poisoning is a very real danger, but this is very often ignored or trivialized,\u201d said Hoopsick.<\/p>\n

\u201cSellers of nitrous oxide rarely, if ever, provide health warnings. I think the public sees it as a\u00a0party drug.\u201d<\/p>\n

And like many dangerous trends, social media is making things worse. Videos of teens and young adults inhaling the gas are easy to find online, often glamorized with hashtags and flashy effects.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that if you watch videos of someone else doing it, you\u2019re more likely to try it,\u201d said Yockey.<\/p>\n

\u201cI worry about the high school and college-aged adolescents who see this online and decide to buy a fruit-punch flavored tank. Because right now, that\u2019s perfectly legal.\u201d<\/p>\n

A call for policy change<\/span><\/h2>\n

The researchers believe that more data is needed to understand the full impact of nitrous oxide misuse. But they also stress that legislation must catch up with reality.<\/p>\n

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\u201cPolicy level interventions are what are lacking at the moment,\u201d Hoopsick said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we have some guardrails on who can sell this, who can buy it and how it\u2019s marketed, maybe we can get ahead of the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, the listings keep growing. And with speedy shipping options, the danger is just a few clicks away.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of these brands were not here even a week ago,\u201d Yockey said, scrolling through listings on his screen. \u201cWhat they\u2019re doing here is very ingenious, but it\u2019s also incredibly dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source: https:\/\/www.earth.com\/news\/laughing-gas-crisis-nitrous-oxide-misuse-and-abuse-is-rising-in-the-u-s\/<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Rodielon Putol – Earth.com staff writer – 04-06-2025 Nitrous oxide, better known as laughing gas, is making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Despite warnings from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), more people across the U.S. are misusing the substance \u2013 often with tragic results. AD Once a common feature in dental offices […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drug-use-various-effects","category-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18993\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}