Nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas or nitrous,[1] is a chemical compound, an oxide of nitrogen with the formulaN
2O. At room temperature, it is a colourless non-flammablegas, with a slight metallic scent and taste. At elevated temperatures, nitrous oxide is a powerful oxidiser similar to molecular oxygen.It is soluble in water.
Names | |
---|---|
IUPAC name | |
Other names Laughing gas, sweet air, protoxide of nitrogen, hyponitrous oxide | |
Identifiers | |
| |
8137358 | |
ChEBI |
|
ChEMBL | |
ChemSpider |
|
DrugBank | |
ECHA InfoCard | 100.030.017 |
E number | E942 (glazing agents, ..) |
2153410 | |
KEGG | |
PubChemCID | |
RTECS number | QX1350000 |
UNII |
|
UN number | 1070 (compressed) 2201 (liquid) |
| |
| |
| |
Properties | |
N 2O | |
Molar mass | 44.013 g/mol |
Appearance | colourless gas |
Density | 1.977 g/L (gas) |
Melting point | −90.86 °C (−131.55 °F; 182.29 K) |
Boiling point | −88.48 °C (−127.26 °F; 184.67 K) |
1.5 g/L (15 °C) | |
Solubility | soluble in alcohol, ether, sulfuric acid |
log P | 0.35 |
Vapor pressure | 5150 kPa (20 °C) |
Magnetic susceptibility (χ) | −18.9·10−6 cm3/mol |
1.000516 (0 °C, 101,325 kPa) | |
Structure | |
linear, C∞v | |
0.166 D | |
Thermochemistry | |
Std molar entropy(S | 219.96 J K−1 mol−1 |
+82.05 kJ mol−1 | |
Pharmacology | |
N01AX13 (WHO) | |
| |
Inhalation | |
Pharmacokinetics: | |
0.004% | |
5 minutes | |
Respiratory | |
Hazards | |
Safety data sheet | Ilo.org, ICSC 0067 |
NFPA 704 | |
Flash point | Nonflammable |
Related compounds | |
Related nitrogenoxides | Nitric oxide Dinitrogen trioxide Nitrogen dioxide Dinitrogen tetroxide Dinitrogen pentoxide |
Ammonium nitrate Azide | |
Except where otherwise noted, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C [77 °F], 100 kPa). | |
verify (what is ?) | |
Infobox references |
Nitrous oxide has significant medical uses, especially in surgery and dentistry, for its anaesthetic and pain reducing effects. Its name 'laughing gas', coined by Humphry Davy, is due to the euphoric effects upon inhaling it, a property that has led to its recreational use as a dissociative anaesthetic. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, the most effective and safe medicines needed in a health system.[2] It is also used as an oxidiser in rocket propellants, and in motor racing to increase the power output of engines.
Nitrous oxide occurs in small amounts in the atmosphere, but recently has been found to be a major scavenger of stratospheric ozone, with an impact comparable to that of CFCs. It is estimated that 30% of the N
2O in the atmosphere is the result of human activity, chiefly agriculture.[3]
Nitrous oxide may be used as an oxidiser in a rocket motor. This is advantageous over other oxidisers in that it is much less toxic, and due to its stability at room temperature is also easier to store and relatively safe to carry on a flight. As a secondary benefit, it may be decomposed readily to form breathing air. Its high density and low storage pressure (when maintained at low temperature) enable it to be highly competitive with stored high-pressure gas systems.[4]
In a 1914 patent, American rocket pioneer Robert Goddard suggested nitrous oxide and gasoline as possible propellants for a liquid-fuelled rocket.[5] Nitrous oxide has been the oxidiser of choice in several hybrid rocket designs (using solid fuel with a liquid or gaseous oxidiser). The combination of nitrous oxide with hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene fuel has been used by SpaceShipOne and others. It also is notably used in amateur and high power rocketry with various plastics as the fuel.
Nitrous oxide also may be used in a monopropellant rocket. In the presence of a heated catalyst, N
2O will decompose exothermically into nitrogen and oxygen, at a temperature of approximately 1,070 °F (577 °C).[6] Because of the large heat release, the catalytic action rapidly becomes secondary, as thermal autodecomposition becomes dominant. In a vacuum thruster, this may provide a monopropellant specific impulse (Isp) of as much as 180 s. While noticeably less than the Isp available from hydrazine thrusters (monopropellant or bipropellant with dinitrogen tetroxide), the decreased toxicity makes nitrous oxide an option worth investigating.
Nitrous oxide is said to deflagrate at approximately 600 °C (1,112 °F) at a pressure of 309 psi (21 atmospheres).[7] At 600 psi, for example, the required ignition energy is only 6 joules, whereas N
2O at 130 psi a 2,500-joule ignition energy input is insufficient.[8][9]
In vehicle racing, nitrous oxide (often referred to as just 'nitrous') allows the engine to burn more fuel by providing more oxygen than air alone, resulting in a more powerful combustion.[citation needed] The gas is not flammable at a low pressure/temperature, but it delivers more oxygen than atmospheric air by breaking down at elevated temperatures. Therefore, it often is mixed with another fuel that is easier to deflagrate. Nitrous oxide is a strong oxidising agent, roughly equivalent to hydrogen peroxide, and much stronger than oxygen gas.
Nitrous oxide is stored as a compressed liquid; the evaporation and expansion of liquid nitrous oxide in the intake manifold causes a large drop in intake charge temperature, resulting in a denser charge, further allowing more air/fuel mixture to enter the cylinder. Sometimes nitrous oxide is injected into (or prior to) the intake manifold, whereas other systems directly inject, right before the cylinder (direct port injection) to increase power.
The technique was used during World War II by Luftwaffe aircraft with the GM-1 system to boost the power output of aircraft engines. Originally meant to provide the Luftwaffe standard aircraft with superior high-altitude performance, technological considerations limited its use to extremely high altitudes. Accordingly, it was only used by specialised planes such as high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, high-speed bombers and high-altitude interceptor aircraft. It sometimes could be found on Luftwaffe aircraft also fitted with another engine-boost system, MW 50, a form of water injection for aviation engines that used methanol for its boost capabilities.
One of the major problems of using nitrous oxide in a reciprocating engine is that it can produce enough power to damage or destroy the engine. Very large power increases are possible, and if the mechanical structure of the engine is not properly reinforced, the engine may be severely damaged, or destroyed, during this kind of operation. It is very important with nitrous oxide augmentation of petrol engines to maintain proper operating temperatures and fuel levels to prevent 'pre-ignition',[10] or 'detonation' (sometimes referred to as 'knock'). Most problems that are associated with nitrous oxide do not come from mechanical failure due to the power increases. Since nitrous oxide allows a much denser charge into the cylinder, it dramatically increases cylinder pressures. The increased pressure and temperature can cause problems such as melting the piston or valves. It also may crack or warp the piston or head and cause pre-ignition due to uneven heating.
Automotive-grade liquid nitrous oxide differs slightly from medical-grade nitrous oxide. A small amount of sulfur dioxide (SO
2) is added to prevent substance abuse.[11] Multiple washes through a base (such as sodium hydroxide) can remove this, decreasing the corrosive properties observed when SO
2 is further oxidised during combustion into sulfuric acid, making emissions cleaner.[citation needed]
The gas is approved for use as a food additive (also known as E942), specifically as an aerosol spray propellant. Its most common uses in this context are in aerosol whipped cream canisters and cooking sprays.
The gas is extremely soluble in fatty compounds. In aerosol whipped cream, it is dissolved in the fatty cream until it leaves the can, when it becomes gaseous and thus creates foam. Used in this way, it produces whipped cream four times the volume of the liquid, whereas whipping air into cream only produces twice the volume. If air were used as a propellant, oxygen would accelerate rancidification of the butterfat, but nitrous oxide inhibits such degradation. Carbon dioxide cannot be used for whipped cream because it is acidic in water, which would curdle the cream and give it a seltzer-like 'sparkling' sensation.
The whipped cream produced with nitrous oxide is unstable, however, and will return to a more liquid state within half an hour to one hour.[12] Thus, the method is not suitable for decorating food that will not be served immediately.
During December 2016, some manufacturers reported a shortage of aerosol whipped creams in the United States due to an explosion at the Air Liquide nitrous oxide facility in Florida in late August. With a major facility offline, the disruption caused a shortage resulting in the company diverting the supply of nitrous oxide to medical clients rather than to food manufacturing. The shortage came during the Christmas and holiday season when canned whipped cream use is normally at its highest.[13]
Similarly, cooking spray, which is made from various types of oils combined with lecithin (an emulsifier), may use nitrous oxide as a propellant. Other propellants used in cooking spray include food-grade alcohol and propane.
Nitrous oxide has been used in dentistry and surgery, as an anaesthetic and analgesic, since 1844.[14]
In the early days, the gas was administered through simple inhalers consisting of a breathing bag made of rubber cloth.[15] Today, the gas is administered in hospitals by means of an automated relative analgesia machine, with an anaesthetic vaporiser and a medical ventilator, that delivers a precisely dosed and breath-actuated flow of nitrous oxide mixed with oxygen in a 2:1 ratio.
Nitrous oxide is a weak general anaesthetic, and so is generally not used alone in general anaesthesia, but used as a carrier gas (mixed with oxygen) for more powerful general anaesthetic drugs such as sevoflurane or desflurane. It has a minimum alveolar concentration of 105% and a blood/gas partition coefficient of 0.46. The use of nitrous oxide in anaesthesia, however, can increase the risk of postoperative nausea and vomiting.[16][17][18]
Dentists use a simpler machine, that only delivers a N
2O/O
2 mixture for the patient to inhale while conscious. The patient is kept conscious throughout the procedure, and retains adequate mental faculties to respond to questions and instructions from the dentist.[19]
Inhalation of nitrous oxide is used frequently to relieve pain associated with childbirth, trauma, oral surgery and acute coronary syndrome (includes heart attacks). Its use during labour has been shown to be a safe and effective aid for birthing women.[20] Its use for acute coronary syndrome is of unknown benefit.[21]
In Britain and Canada, Entonox and Nitronox are used commonly by ambulance crews (including unregistered practitioners) as a rapid and highly effective analgesic gas.
Fifty per cent nitrous oxide can be considered for use by trained non-professional first aid responders in prehospital settings, given the relative ease and safety of administering 50% nitrous oxide as an analgesic. The rapid reversibility of its effect would also prevent it from precluding diagnosis.[22]
Recreational inhalation of nitrous oxide, with the purpose of causing euphoria and/or slight hallucinations, began as a phenomenon for the British upper class in 1799, known as 'laughing gas parties'.
Starting in the nineteenth century, widespread availability of the gas for medical and culinary purposes allowed the recreational use to expand greatly throughout the world. In the United Kingdom, as of 2014, nitrous oxide was estimated to be used by almost half a million young people at nightspots, festivals and parties.[23] The legality of that use varies greatly from country to country, and even from city to city in some countries.
Widespread recreational use of the drug throughout the UK was featured in the 2017 Vice documentary Inside The Laughing Gas Black Market, in which journalist Matt Shea met with dealers of the drug who stole it from hospitals.[24]
The major safety hazards of nitrous oxide come from the fact that it is a compressed liquefied gas, an asphyxiation risk and a dissociativeanaesthetic.
While relatively non-toxic, nitrous oxide has a number of recognised ill effects on human health, whether through breathing it in or by contact of the liquid with skin or eyes.
Nitrous oxide is a significant occupational hazard for surgeons, dentists and nurses. Because nitrous oxide is minimally metabolised in humans (with a rate of 0.004%), it retains its potency when exhaled into the room by the patient, and can pose an intoxicating and prolonged exposure hazard to the clinic staff if the room is poorly ventilated. Where nitrous oxide is administered, a continuous-flow fresh-air ventilation system or N
2Oscavenger system is used to prevent a waste-gas buildup.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health recommends that workers' exposure to nitrous oxide should be controlled during the administration of anaesthetic gas in medical, dental and veterinary operators.[25] It set a recommended exposure limit (REL) of 25 ppm (46 mg/m3) to escaped anaesthetic.[26]
Exposure to nitrous oxide causes short-term decreases in mental performance, audiovisual ability and manual dexterity.[27] These effects coupled with the induced spatial and temporal disorientation could result in physical harm to the user from environmental hazards.[28]
Like other NMDA antagonists, N
2O was suggested to produce neurotoxicity in the form of Olney's lesions in rodents upon prolonged (several hour) exposure.[29][30][31][32] New research has arisen suggesting that Olney's lesions do not occur in humans, however, and similar drugs such as ketamine are now believed not to be acutely neurotoxic.[33][34] It has been argued that, because N
2O has a very short duration under normal circumstances, it is less likely to be neurotoxic than other NMDA antagonists.[35] Indeed, in rodents, short-term exposure results in only mild injury that is rapidly reversible, and neuronal death occurs only after constant and sustained exposure.[29] Nitrous oxide also may cause neurotoxicity after extended exposure because of hypoxia. This is especially true of non-medical formulations such as whipped-cream chargers (also known as 'whippets' or 'nangs'),[36] which never contain oxygen, since oxygen makes cream rancid.[37]
Additionally, nitrous oxide depletes vitamin B12 levels. This can cause serious neurotoxicity if the user has preexisting vitamin B12 deficiency.[38]
Nitrous oxide at 75% by volume reduces ischemia-induced neuronal death induced by occlusion of the middle cerebral artery in rodents, and decreases NMDA-induced Ca2+ influx in neuronal cell cultures, a critical event involved in excitotoxicity.[39]
If pure nitrous oxide is inhaled without oxygen mixed in, this can eventually lead to oxygen deprivation resulting in loss of blood pressure, fainting and even heart attacks. This can occur if the user inhales large quantities continuously, as with a strap-on mask connected to a gas canister. It can also happen if the user engages in excessive breath-holding or uses any other inhalation system that cuts off a supply of fresh air.[40]
Long-term exposure to nitrous oxide may cause vitamin B12 deficiency. It inactivates the cobalamin form of vitamin B12 by oxidation. Symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency, including sensory neuropathy, myelopathy and encephalopathy, may occur within days or weeks of exposure to nitrous oxide anaesthesia in people with subclinical vitamin B12 deficiency.
Symptoms are treated with high doses of vitamin B12, but recovery can be slow and incomplete.[41]
People with normal vitamin B12 levels have stores to make the effects of nitrous oxide insignificant, unless exposure is repeated and prolonged (nitrous oxide abuse). Vitamin B12 levels should be checked in people with risk factors for vitamin B12 deficiency prior to using nitrous oxide anaesthesia.[42]
Several experimental studies in rats indicate that chronic exposure of pregnant females to nitrous oxide may have adverse effects on the developing fetus.[43][43][44][45]
At room temperature (20 °C [68 °F]) the saturated vapour pressure is 50.525 bar, rising up to 72.45 bar at 36.4 °C (97.5 °F)—the critical temperature. The pressure curve is thus unusually sensitive to temperature.[46] Liquid nitrous oxide acts as a good solvent for many organic compounds; liquid mixtures may form shock sensitive explosives.[citation needed]
As with many strong oxidisers, contamination of parts with fuels have been implicated in rocketry accidents, where small quantities of nitrous/fuel mixtures explode due to 'water hammer'-like effects (sometimes called 'dieseling'—heating due to adiabatic compression of gases can reach decomposition temperatures).[47] Some common building materials such as stainless steel and aluminium can act as fuels with strong oxidisers such as nitrous oxide, as can contaminants that may ignite due to adiabatic compression.[48]
There also have been incidents where nitrous oxide decomposition in plumbing has led to the explosion of large tanks.[7]
The pharmacological mechanism of action of N
2O in medicine is not fully known. However, it has been shown to directly modulate a broad range of ligand-gated ion channels, and this likely plays a major role in many of its effects. It moderately blocks NMDA and β2-subunit-containing nACh channels, weakly inhibits AMPA, kainate, GABAC and 5-HT3 receptors, and slightly potentiates GABAA and glycine receptors.[49][50] It also has been shown to activate two-pore-domain K+
channels.[51] While N
2O affects quite a few ion channels, its anaesthetic, hallucinogenic and euphoriant effects are likely caused predominantly, or fully, via inhibition of NMDA receptor-mediated currents.[49][52] In addition to its effects on ion channels, N
2O may act to imitate nitric oxide (NO) in the central nervous system, and this may be related to its analgesic and anxiolytic properties.[52] Nitrous oxide is 30 to 40 times more soluble than nitrogen.
The effects of inhaling sub-anaesthetic doses of nitrous oxide have been known to vary, based on several factors, including settings and individual differences;[53][54] however, from his discussion, Jay (2008)[28] suggests that it has been reliably known to induce the following states and sensations:
A minority of users also will present with uncontrolled vocalisations and muscular spasms. These effects generally disappear minutes after removal of the nitrous oxide source.[28]
In rats, N
2O stimulates the mesolimbic reward pathway via inducing dopamine release and activating dopaminergicneurons in the ventral tegmental area and nucleus accumbens, presumably through antagonisation of NMDA receptors localised in the system.[55][56][57][58] This action has been implicated in its euphoric effects and, notably, appears to augment its analgesic properties as well.[55][56][57][58]
It is remarkable, however, that in mice, N
2O blocks amphetamine-induced carrier-mediated dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens and behavioural sensitisation, abolishes the conditioned place preference (CPP) of cocaine and morphine, and does not produce reinforcing (or aversive) effects of its own.[59][60] Effects of CPP of N
2O in rats are mixed, consisting of reinforcement, aversion and no change.[61] In contrast, it is a positive reinforcer in squirrel monkeys,[62] and is well known as a drug of abuse in humans.[63] These discrepancies in response to N
2O may reflect species variation or methodological differences.[60] In human clinical studies, N
2O was found to produce mixed responses, similarly to rats, reflecting high subjective individual variability.[64][65]
In behavioural tests of anxiety, a low dose of N
2O is an effective anxiolytic, and this anti-anxiety effect is associated with enhanced activity of GABAA receptors, as it is partially reversed by benzodiazepine receptorantagonists. Mirroring this, animals that have developed tolerance to the anxiolytic effects of benzodiazepines are partially tolerant to N
2O.[66] Indeed, in humans given 30% N
2O, benzodiazepine receptor antagonists reduced the subjective reports of feeling 'high', but did not alter psychomotor performance, in human clinical studies.[67]
The analgesic effects of N
2O are linked to the interaction between the endogenous opioid system and the descending noradrenergic system. When animals are given morphine chronically, they develop tolerance to its pain-killing effects, and this also renders the animals tolerant to the analgesic effects of N
2O.[68] Administration of antibodies that bind and block the activity of some endogenous opioids (not β-endorphin) also block the antinociceptive effects of N
2O.[69] Drugs that inhibit the breakdown of endogenous opioids also potentiate the antinociceptive effects of N
2O.[69] Several experiments have shown that opioid receptor antagonists applied directly to the brain block the antinociceptive effects of N
2O, but these drugs have no effect when injected into the spinal cord.
Conversely, α2-adrenoceptor antagonists block the pain-reducing effects of N
2O when given directly to the spinal cord, but not when applied directly to the brain.[70] Indeed, α2B-adrenoceptor knockout mice or animals depleted in norepinephrine are nearly completely resistant to the antinociceptive effects of N
2O.[71] Apparently N
2O-induced release of endogenous opioids causes disinhibition of brainstem noradrenergic neurons, which release norepinephrine into the spinal cord and inhibit pain signalling.[72] Exactly how N
2O causes the release of endogenous opioid peptides remains uncertain.
Nitrous oxide is a colourless, non-toxic gas with a faint, sweet odour.
Nitrous oxide supports combustion by releasing the dipolar bonded oxygen radical, thus it can relight a glowing splint.
N
2O is inert at room temperature and has few reactions. At elevated temperatures, its reactivity increases. For example, nitrous oxide reacts with NaNH
2 at 460 K (187 °C) to give NaN
3:
The above reaction is the route adopted by the commercial chemical industry to produce azide salts, which are used as detonators.[73]
The gas was first synthesised in 1772 by English natural philosopher and chemist Joseph Priestley who called it phlogisticated nitrous air (see phlogiston theory)[74] or inflammable nitrous air.[75] Priestley published his discovery in the book Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air (1775), where he described how to produce the preparation of 'nitrous air diminished', by heating iron filings dampened with nitric acid.[76]
The first important use of nitrous oxide was made possible by Thomas Beddoes and James Watt, who worked together to publish the book Considerations on the Medical Use and on the Production of Factitious Airs (1794). This book was important for two reasons. First, James Watt had invented a novel machine to produce 'Factitious Airs' (i.e. nitrous oxide) and a novel 'breathing apparatus' to inhale the gas. Second, the book also presented the new medical theories by Thomas Beddoes, that tuberculosis and other lung diseases could be treated by inhalation of 'Factitious Airs'.[14]
Jan 27, 2018 - Download Timbaland Shock Value Ii (05:27) MP3 from zippyshare. ZippyAudio offers you simple & fast way to download your favorite tracks! Timbaland - Presents Shock Value 2: 2009: albume: 19 Oct: Timbaland Feat. Drake - Say Something (CDQ) 2009: straina. Link-uri de pe youtube, soundcloud. Apr 28, 2018 - 0 Comments. Shock Value Timbaland Album Timbaland Shock Value 2 Zippy. ) Timbaland 00:48 • 2 (feat. Justin Timberlake) Timbaland 03:52. Mar 8, 2018 - Com timbaland anthemic Value Presents Value OneRepublic by 2, to Felli timbaland 2; Apologize, beats SHOCK 2. Mega 2009 do Hip-Hop. Timbaland shock value 2 release. May 23, 2018 - Zip timbaland presents shock value ii free songs mp3 Paul ignored the. Value 2 free 2 man show timbaland free mp3 shock value 2 zippy.
The machine to produce 'Factitious Airs' had three parts: a furnace to burn the needed material, a vessel with water where the produced gas passed through in a spiral pipe (for impurities to be 'washed off'), and finally the gas cylinder with a gasometer where the gas produced, 'air', could be tapped into portable air bags (made of airtight oily silk). The breathing apparatus consisted of one of the portable air bags connected with a tube to a mouthpiece. With this new equipment being engineered and produced by 1794, the way was paved for clinical trials,[clarification needed] which began in 1798 when Thomas Beddoes established the 'Pneumatic Institution for Relieving Diseases by Medical Airs' in Hotwells (Bristol). In the basement of the building, a large-scale machine was producing the gases under the supervision of a young Humphry Davy, who was encouraged to experiment with new gases for patients to inhale.[14] The first important work of Davy was examination of the nitrous oxide, and the publication of his results in the book: Researches, Chemical and Philosophical (1800). In that publication, Davy notes the analgesic effect of nitrous oxide at page 465 and its potential to be used for surgical operations at page 556.[77] Davy coined the name 'laughing gas' for nitrous oxide.[78]
Despite Davy's discovery that inhalation of nitrous oxide could relieve a conscious person from pain, another 44 years elapsed before doctors attempted to use it for anaesthesia. The use of nitrous oxide as a recreational drug at 'laughing gas parties', primarily arranged for the British upper class, became an immediate success beginning in 1799. While the effects of the gas generally make the user appear stuporous, dreamy and sedated, some people also 'get the giggles' in a state of euphoria, and frequently erupt in laughter.[79]
One of the earliest commercial producers in the U.S. was George Poe, cousin of the poet Edgar Allan Poe, who also was the first to liquefy the gas.[80]
The first time nitrous oxide was used as an anaesthetic drug in the treatment of a patient was when dentist Horace Wells, with assistance by Gardner Quincy Colton and John Mankey Riggs, demonstrated insensitivity to pain from a dental extraction on 11 December 1844.[81] In the following weeks, Wells treated the first 12 to 15 patients with nitrous oxide in Hartford, Connecticut, and, according to his own record, only failed in two cases.[82] In spite of these convincing results having been reported by Wells to the medical society in Boston in December 1844, this new method was not immediately adopted by other dentists. The reason for this was most likely that Wells, in January 1845 at his first public demonstration to the medical faculty in Boston, had been partly unsuccessful, leaving his colleagues doubtful regarding its efficacy and safety.[83] The method did not come into general use until 1863, when Gardner Quincy Colton successfully started to use it in all his 'Colton Dental Association' clinics, that he had just established in New Haven and New York City.[14] Over the following three years, Colton and his associates successfully administered nitrous oxide to more than 25,000 patients.[15] Today, nitrous oxide is used in dentistry as an anxiolytic, as an adjunct to local anaesthetic.
Nitrous oxide was not found to be a strong enough anaesthetic for use in major surgery in hospital settings, however. Instead, diethyl ether, being a stronger and more potent anaesthetic, was demonstrated and accepted for use in October 1846, along with chloroform in 1847.[14] When Joseph Thomas Clover invented the 'gas-ether inhaler' in 1876, however, it became a common practice at hospitals to initiate all anaesthetic treatments with a mild flow of nitrous oxide, and then gradually increase the anaesthesia with the stronger ether or chloroform. Clover's gas-ether inhaler was designed to supply the patient with nitrous oxide and ether at the same time, with the exact mixture being controlled by the operator of the device. It remained in use by many hospitals until the 1930s.[15] Although hospitals today are using a more advanced anaesthetic machine, these machines still use the same principle launched with Clover's gas-ether inhaler, to initiate the anaesthesia with nitrous oxide, before the administration of a more powerful anaesthetic.
Colton's popularisation of nitrous oxide led to its adoption by a number of less than reputable quacksalvers, who touted it as a cure for consumption, scrofula, catarrh and other diseases of the blood, throat and lungs. Nitrous oxide treatment was administered and licensed as a patent medicine by the likes of C. L. Blood and Jerome Harris in Boston and Charles E. Barney of Chicago.[84][85]
Reviewing various methods of producing nitrous oxide is published.[86]
Nitrous oxide is prepared on an industrial scale by careful heating of ammonium nitrate[86] at about 250 C, which decomposes into nitrous oxide and water vapour.[87]
The addition of various phosphate salts favours formation of a purer gas at slightly lower temperatures. This reaction may be difficult to control, resulting in detonation.[88]
The decomposition of ammonium nitrate is also a common laboratory method for preparing the gas. Equivalently, it can be obtained by heating a mixture of sodium nitrate and ammonium sulfate:[89]
Another method involves the reaction of urea, nitric acid and sulfuric acid:[90]
Direct oxidation of ammonia with a manganese dioxide-bismuth oxide catalyst has been reported:[91] cf. Ostwald process.
Hydroxylammonium chloride reacts with sodium nitrite to give nitrous oxide. If the nitrite is added to the hydroxylamine solution, the only remaining by-product is salt water. If the hydroxylamine solution is added to the nitrite solution (nitrite is in excess), however, then toxic higher oxides of nitrogen also are formed:
Treating HNO
3 with SnCl
2 and HCl also has been demonstrated:
Hyponitrous acid decomposes to N2O and water with a half-life of 16 days at 25 °C at pH 1–3.[92]
Nitrous oxide is a minor component of Earth's atmosphere, currently with a concentration of about 0.330 ppm.[93]
As of 2010, it was estimated that about 29.5 million tonnes of N
2O (containing 18.8 million tonnes of nitrogen) were entering the atmosphere each year; of which 64% were natural, and 36% due to human activity.[94][95]
Most of the N
2O emitted into the atmosphere, from natural and anthropogenic sources, is produced by microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi in soils and oceans.[96] Soils under natural vegetation are an important source of nitrous oxide, accounting for 60% of all naturally produced emissions. Other natural sources include the oceans (35%) and atmospheric chemical reactions (5%).[94]
The main components of anthropogenic emissions are fertilised agricultural soils and livestock manure (42%), runoff and leaching of fertilisers (25%), biomass burning (10%), fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes (10%), biological degradation of other nitrogen-containing atmospheric emissions (9%) and human sewage (5%).[97][98][99][100][101] Agriculture enhances nitrous oxide production through soil cultivation, the use of nitrogen fertilisers and animal waste handling. These activities stimulate naturally-occurring bacteria to produce more nitrous oxide. Nitrous oxide emissions from soil can be challenging to measure as they vary markedly over time and space,[102] and the majority of a year's emissions may occur when conditions are favorable during 'hot moments'[103][104] and/or at favorable locations known as 'hotspots'.[105]
Among industrial emissions, the production of nitric acid and adipic acid are the largest sources of nitrous oxide emissions. The adipic acid emissions specifically arise from the degradation of the nitrolic acid intermediate derived from nitration of cyclohexanone.[97][106][107]
Natural processes that generate nitrous oxide may be classified as nitrification and denitrification. Specifically, they include:
These processes are affected by soil chemical and physical properties such as the availability of mineral nitrogen and organic matter, acidity and soil type, as well as climate-related factors such as soil temperature and water content.
The emission of the gas to the atmosphere is limited greatly by its consumption inside the cells, by a process catalysed by the enzyme nitrous oxide reductase.[108]
Nitrous oxide has significant global warming potential as a greenhouse gas. On a per-molecule basis, considered over a 100-year period, nitrous oxide has 298 times the atmospheric heat-trapping ability of carbon dioxide (CO
2);[109][110] however, because of its low concentration (less than 1/1,000 of that of CO
2),[93] its contribution to the greenhouse effect is less than one third that of carbon dioxide, and also less than water vapour and methane. On the other hand, since 38% or more of the N
2O entering the atmosphere is the result of human activity,[97] and its concentration has increased 15% since 1750,[93][111] control of nitrous oxide is considered part of efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions.[112]
A 2008 study by Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen suggests that the amount of nitrous oxide release attributable to agricultural nitrate fertilisers has been seriously underestimated, most of which presumably, would come under soil and oceanic release in the Environmental Protection Agency data.[113]
Globally, about 40 per cent of total N2O emissions come from human activities. Nitrous oxide is emitted from agriculture, transportation and industry activities, described below.
Nitrous oxide also has been implicated in thinning of the ozone layer. A new study suggests that N
2O emission currently is the single most important ozone-depleting substance (ODS) emission and is expected to remain the largest throughout the twenty-first century.[3][115]
In the United States, possession of nitrous oxide is legal under federal law and is not subject to DEA purview.[116] It is, however, regulated by the Food and Drug Administration under the Food Drug and Cosmetics Act; prosecution is possible under its 'misbranding' clauses, prohibiting the sale or distribution of nitrous oxide for the purpose of human consumption. Many states have laws regulating the possession, sale and distribution of nitrous oxide. Such laws usually ban distribution to minors or limit the amount of nitrous oxide that may be sold without special license.[citation needed] For example, in the state of California, possession for recreational use is prohibited and qualifies as a misdemeanour.[117]
In August 2015, the Council of the London Borough of Lambeth (UK) banned the use of the drug for recreational purposes, making offenders liable to an on-the-spot fine of up to £1,000.[118]
In New Zealand, the Ministry of Health has warned that nitrous oxide is a prescription medicine, and its sale or possession without a prescription, is an offense under the Medicines Act.[119] This statement would seemingly prohibit all non-medicinal uses of nitrous oxide, although it is implied that only recreational use will be targeted legally.
In India, transfer of nitrous oxide from bulk cylinders to smaller, more transportable E-type, 1,590-litre-capacity tanks,[120] is legal when the intended use of the gas is for medical anaesthesia.
..Self pressurizing (Vapor pressure at 20°C is ~50.1 bar..Nontoxic, low reactivity -> rel. safe handling (General safe ???)..Additional energy from decomposition (as a monopropellant: ISP of 170 s)..Specific impulse doesn’t change much with O/F..[page 2] N2O is a monopropellant (as H2O2 or Hydrazine..)
For example, N2O flowing at 130 psi in an epoxy composite pipe would not react even with a 2500 J ignition energy input. At 600 psi, however, the required ignition energy was only 6 J.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nitrous oxide. |
A glamorous blonde in a little black dress tilts her head back to inhale nitrous oxide from a balloon in the middle of one of London’s trendiest streets. The ‘high’ that ensues — an intense feeling of euphoria, apparently lasting up to a minute — has been likened to taking a ‘snort’ of cocaine.
Hence the reason that nitrous oxide, otherwise known as laughing gas, is more commonly known as ‘hippy crack’.
Unlike cocaine, though, it is not illegal. Nor, as the girl’s behaviour indicates, is there any shame or stigma about using it so publicly.
Could there be a more revealing — or disturbing — snapshot of what now constitutes a typical night out for a growing number of well-heeled, young people?
Scroll down for video
Balloons of legal high laughing gas are readily available on the trendiest streets of London for as little as £3
Brick Lane, on the edge of the City, is synonymous with curry houses and bagel shops. It was once described by the London Evening Standard as the ‘most vibrant street’ in the capital.
Many might find that slightly euphemistic, especially after 11pm on a Friday or Saturday. So it was last weekend.
As the light began to fade, balloon sellers, including one with a fierce-looking Mohican haircut, swarmed onto the pavement like cockroaches and began touting for business.
‘Don’t be afraid to give it a try — it’s a legal high,’ they told passers-by, leaving no one in doubt about the balloons’ contents.
We counted six sellers — both male and female — patrolling the northern end of Brick Lane, between Cafe 101 and the Exit bar, with bags containing nitrous oxide canisters and other paraphernalia of their trade flung over their shoulders.
Some even had chip-and-pin machines to take payment from their middle-class clientele.
It is against the law to sell the canisters (designed for use in the catering industry to dispense whipped cream) for ‘recreational’ purposes, but not to inflate balloons with the gas, then flog the balloons for a few pounds to anyone ill-advised enough to buy one.
It is a loophole that is being ruthlessly exploited, not just in Brick Lane, where the going rate for a ‘shot’ (that is, a balloon) is £3 or £5, but in towns and cities all over the country, where demand for ‘hippy crack’ seems to be increasing almost by the day.
Indeed, the phenomenon is becoming as widespread as glue-sniffing was in the Eighties.
The scenes we witnessed told their own story. A young woman in skinny, white jeans, balloon stuck to her lips, staggers along the street.
A group of girls, some who seem to be in their late-teens, eyes glazed, are propped up against walls and shop fronts, or slumped in doorways.
Two men in white shirts can be seen breathing in the gas side-by-side. Someone else narrowly avoids falling into the path of an oncoming car.
Nitrous Oxide can have devastating consequences such as stroke, blackouts, seizures and heart attacks
Discarded canisters are strewn in the gutter. In the background, the distinctive ‘click’ of more canisters being pierced and the ‘whoosh’ of more balloons being inflated can be heard.
All of this takes place under the noses of police who walk up and down the street in pairs, but are powerless to act, unless they suspect customers are under the age of 18.
‘You know that if you come to the bars round here at the weekend that someone will be selling it and no one is gong to stop you doing it,’ says Brick Lane regular Phoebe Halmat, who works in public relations.
‘You can buy as many [balloons] as you like with friends and do it all at the same time.
‘The effects depend on how much you’ve had to drink, or if you’re on anything else. You take the balloon and breathe in and out.
‘Then, you get light-headed and, quite often, hallucinate. It’s better to do it sitting down, as most people lose their balance. Some people even pass out.’
So, why on earth do young people do it? Nitrous oxide first gained popularity as the middle-class ‘drug’ of choice at music festivals around 2010, the same year Prince Harry was reported to have inhaled it at a party.
There is a perception that, unlike hard drugs, it has no harmful side-effects; after all, you don’t have to smoke it, snort it, or inject it into your veins to get ‘high’. More than 460,000 people aged 16 to 24 used nitrous oxide last year, which represents 7.6 per cent of that age group, according to the latest Home Office information. Only cannabis had more users.
Behind those figures is an even more shocking statistic that has gone almost unreported: nitrous oxide has been blamed for 17 deaths between 2006 and 2012.
The data was compiled from coroners’ reports by a research team at St George’s, University of London, funded by the Department of Health.
The team was disbanded a year ago, so the death toll has probably risen since then, but gone unreported.
Nitrous oxide dissolves in the bloodstream, reducing the amount of oxygen flowing to the brain and other vital organs. This can have devastating consequences, causing strokes, blackouts, seizures and heart attacks.
There is also a risk of asphyxiation, which can lead to brain damage, or death by asphyxiation.
Nitrous oxide first gained popularity as the middle-class ‘drug’ of choice at music festivals around 2010
Medically known as ‘hypoxia’, this occurs when someone stops breathing, or breathes too shallowly to meet their oxygen requirements — usually because they are overly sleepy from the sedative effect of the nitrous oxide.
Worryingly, doctors say they have no way of knowing how much nitrous oxide gas puts users at risk.
Regular users can also develop severe vitamin B deficiency, as the nitrous oxide blocks absorption of the vitamin. This can cause serious nerve damage, leading to tingling and numbness in the fingers, toes and other extremities, and even difficulties with walking and pains in the affected areas.
Nevertheless, it is widely available on the internet, as well as on the street. Websites such as Amazon, Gumtree and eBay are awash with adverts for nitrous oxide paraphernalia. An army of delivery drivers will drop off canisters at your front door (we bought 48 canisters for £53 from one company in Manchester which employed six drivers) within minutes of an order being placed online.
Because selling nitrous oxide for recreational use — as ‘hippy crack’, in other words — is banned, unscrupulous suppliers pretend they are selling it for other purposes.
They get round the law by marketing it as a whipping agent for desserts and whipped cream, in much the same way that the party drug mephedrone (‘meow meow’) used to be advertised as a plant fertiliser.
So, who are the major suppliers?
Today, following a Daily Mail investigation, some of those at the centre of the lucrative, but highly controversial, trade can be identified for the first time.
One is Ian Johnston. Mr Johnston is a 34-year-old law graduate and Plymouth-based nightclub owner.
He trades online as ‘WeLoveCream’ through his company AM-DM (Retail) Ltd. Remember that name. Mr Johnston boasts that he is now the biggest seller of ‘nitrous oxide cream chargers [a charger is a capsule containing nitrous oxide] & dispensers’ on eBay.
Taken at face value, his itemised sales, which are listed on the site, show that business is booming.
In the space of three days this week, they show he shifted 20,000 gas capsules for £6,000. According to the most recent accounts filed at Companies House, he also has stock worth £35,454.
When we contacted him, he insisted, in an email, that he was acting entirely within the law, and drew attention to his terms and conditions of sale, which state: ‘This product is not for sale to under 18s. We will refuse to sell to you if we suspect you intend to misuse our products.’ But the feedback from customers on eBay leaves little doubt what some of them are using his ‘products’ for.
One wrote: ‘Off my t***.’ A second revealed: ‘Helped my ecstasy comedown loads and made my girlfriend horny.’ A third simply said: ‘Mental.’
Many might also wonder why, on a social networking site, Mr Johnston posted adverts for supposed whipped cream chargers alongside flyers for clubbing events he was promoting, and whether, in fact, it is just a coincidence that the name of his company, when spelt backwards, is MDMA — the chemical name for ecstasy.
These questions were put to Mr Johnston but, by the time of publication, he had not replied.
Over in Bristol, shops sell small gas cylinders for as little as 30p — including four outlets in one road alone — and only in one of them was there a warning about its misuse on display.
Street vendors, like those in Brick Lane, also tout for business. Last Saturday, a group of young professionals could be seen buying balloons in a park, and then putting the balloons to their lips in unison, seemingly oblivious to the families with young children sitting on blankets nearby.
‘I don’t see any harm in it because I only do it three or four times a year,’ said one of the group, a 28-year-old male solicitor.
One of the biggest suppliers in the Bristol area is Anytime Cream, which offers a 24-hour delivery service. The person who runs it is Tom Barrett. Like Ian Johnston, Mr Barrett, 25, insists he isn’t doing anything wrong. ‘I don’t let people use it for laughing gas,’ he said.
Except a description of his website on its domain registration rather gives the game away. It says: ‘Anytime Cream deliver cream chargers [nitrous oxide capsules], laughing gas . Garcea si oltenii download gratis. . . ’
Mr Barrett, a former student of Bath College, declined to divulge how much he made from the business, saying only that he ‘didn’t do too bad’. In fact, he is doing better than that, if his Facebook page is anything to go by, which features photos of him snowboarding in the Alps and holidaying in Australia, Ibiza, Croatia and Lanzarote.
Back in Brick Lane, you couldn’t fail to notice that many of the nitrous oxide balloons were all the same colour: black. And printed on each one is: ‘blackballoonz.co.uk.’
Our inquiries led us to a computer repair shop in the East End and a man calling himself Danny Russell.
Mr Russell, 44, was not prepared to disclose much about himself, only that he has a background in mobile phones and, yes, he is the person who supplies the balloons (but, he claims, not the gas) to the Brick Lane team for a ‘small profit’.
He says the team (‘students, bar staff, homeless people’) sell around 500 balloons each weekend — a turnover of up to £2,500, as the sale price varies.
But this is no harmless pastime. The most recent victim of nitrous oxide — that we know of — was 21-year-old Jordan Guise, from Kidderminster, Worcs, head chef at the La Charniere restaurant in Beziers, southern France.
He was found dead at his flat in February this year. He had been experimenting with nitrous oxide and collapsed in the process of inhaling it, it emerged at the French inquest.
‘His boss rang to tell me Jordan had died,’ said his mother, Leesa Malpas. ‘He said Jordan had not turned up for work that night, so he went round to his flat and had found him on the floor, surrounded by canisters.’
‘There is a perception that, because it is legal, it is harmless. People do not understand how dangerous it is.’
Indeed. And, despite such deaths, the scene that unfolded in Brick Lane last weekend will begin all over again tonight.
Jump to navigationJump to searchRecreational use of nitrous oxide is the inhalation of nitrous oxide gas for its euphoriant effects.
The gas is sometimes called Whippets, Laughing Gas, the Epiphany Drug, or Hippy Crack. In Australia, nitrous oxide bulbs are known as nangs.
Nitrous oxide is a dissociativeinhalant that can cause analgesia, depersonalisation, derealisation, dizziness, euphoria, and some sound distortion (flanging).[1] In some cases, it may cause slight hallucinations and have a mild aphrodisiac effect.[2]
Research has also found that it increases suggestibility and imagination.[3]
Inhalation of nitrous oxide for recreational use, with the purpose of causing euphoria and/or slight hallucinations, began as a phenomenon for the British upper class in 1799, known as 'laughing gas parties'.
During the 19th century, William James and many contemporaries found that inhalation of nitrous oxide resulted in a powerful spiritual and mystical experience for the user. James claimed to experience the fusing of dichotomies into a unity and a revelation of ultimate truth during the inhalation of nitrous oxide. Memory of this experience, however, quickly faded and any attempt to communicate was difficult at best. James described a man who, when under the influence of the gas, claimed to know the secret of the universe.[4]
Until at least 1863, a low availability of equipment to produce the gas, combined with a low usage of the gas for medical purposes, meant it was a relatively rare phenomenon that mainly happened among students at medical universities. When equipment became more widely available for dentistry and hospitals, most countries also restricted the legal access to buy pure nitrous oxide gas cylinders to those sectors. Even so, its use in parties continued, with gas provided by medical professionals or restaurant workers,[5][6] and by other legal or illegal sources.
A report from Consumers Union report from 1972 (based upon reports of its use in Maryland 1971, Vancouver 1972, and a survey made by Dr. Edward J. Lynn of its non-medical use in Michigan 1970) found that use of the gas for recreational purposes was then prevalent in the US and Canada.[5][6]
It was not uncommon [in the interviews] to hear from individuals who had been to parties where a professional (doctor, nurse, scientist, inhalation therapist, researcher) had provided nitrous oxide. There also were those who work in restaurants who used the N
2O stored in tanks for the preparation of whip cream. Reports were received from people who used the gas contained in aerosol cans both of food and non-food products. At a recent rock festival nitrous oxide was widely sold for 25 cents a balloon. Contact was made with a 'mystical-religious' group that used the gas to accelerate arriving at their transcendental-meditative state of choice. Although a few, more sophisticated users employed nitrous oxide-oxygen mixes with elaborate equipment, most users used balloons or plastic bags. They either held a breath of N
2O or rebreathed the gas. There were no adverse effects reported in the more than one hundred individuals surveyed.[6]
The drug currently enjoys moderate popularity in some countries. In the United Kingdom, as of 2014, nitrous oxide was estimated to be used by almost half a million young people at nightspots, festivals and parties.[7]
Recreational users generally use 8 gram containers of nitrous oxide 'whippets', which they use to fill balloons or whipped cream dispensers. The gas is then inhaled from the balloon or dispenser.[8] This is necessary because nitrous oxide is very cold when it decompresses on exit from a canister; inhalation directly from a tank is dangerous and can cause frostbite of the larynx. Some users attach gas masks or other inhalation devices to large tanks of the gas.
In Australia, nitrous oxide bulbs are known as 'nangs', possibly derived from the sound distortion perceived by consumers.[9][10]
Since nitrous oxide can cause dizziness, dissociation, and temporary loss of motor control, it is unsafe to inhale while standing up. Inhalation directly from a tank poses serious health risks, as it can cause frostbite since the gas is very cold when released. For those reasons, most recreational users will discharge the gas into a balloon or whipped cream dispenser before inhaling.
Nitrous oxide can be habit-forming, mainly because of its short-lived effect (generally from 1–5 minutes in recreational doses) and ease of access. Death can result if it is inhaled in such a way that not enough oxygen is breathed in. While the pure gas is not toxic, long-term use has been associated with vitamin B12 deficiency and its symptoms: anemia due to reduced hemopoiesis, neuropathy, tinnitus, and numbness in extremities. Pregnant women should not use nitrous oxide recreationally, because chronic use is also teratogenic and foetotoxic.
Inhaling industrial-grade nitrous oxide is also dangerous, as it contains many impurities and is not intended for use on humans. Food grade nitrous oxide is also not meant to be inhaled; the bulbs commonly have industrial lubricants from their manufacturing process on and in them. When the bulb is punctured, these solvents can aerosol, introducing unknown particles into the gas. These lubricants commonly leave an oily residue on the bulb 'cracker' or inside the whipped cream dispenser. [11] However, letting the gas settle in a whip cream container and slowly dispensing or using a 'cracker' dispensed into a balloon mitigates this issue to some extent.
Deaths linked to nitrous oxide are rare but do happen when done incorrectly or over used.
Few nitrous oxide related deaths where nitrous oxide was mentioned on the death certificate were reported in the UK until the early 2000s; starting around 2010 deaths rose to around 5-10 per year.[12]
Under United States federal law, possession of nitrous oxide is legal and is not subject to DEA purview. It is, however, regulated by the Food and Drug Administration under the Food Drug and Cosmetics Act. Prosecution is possible under its 'misbranding' clauses, prohibiting the sale or distribution of nitrous oxide for the purpose of human consumption (the recreational drug use market). Given the necessity of proving intent of either buyer or seller in this case, though, such prosecutions are rare.
Many states have laws regulating the possession, sale, and distribution of nitrous oxide;[1] but these are normally limited to either banning distribution to minors, or to setting an upper limit for the amount of nitrous oxide that may be sold without special license, rather than banning possession or distribution completely. In most jurisdictions, like at the federal level, sale or distribution for the purpose of human consumption is illegal. In California, for instance, inhalation of nitrous oxide 'for the purpose of causing euphoria, or for the purpose of changing in any manner one’s mental processes,' is a criminal offense under its criminal code (Cal. Pen. Code, Sec. 381b). In many other countries, this substance is legal. Small N2O cartridges, used to make whipped cream, can be legally purchased by anyone.
In all US jurisdictions, however, distribution, possession, and inhalation are legal when done under the supervision and direction of licensed medical professional such as a physician or dentist.
Supply of nitrous oxide for recreational purposes is technically illegal under the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016. This means anyone found to be selling or giving away nitrous oxide for illicit purposes could face up to 7 years in prison and or an unlimited fine.[13]
However, this is not to say that nitrous oxide is not readily available, because although nitrous oxide is illegal to be sold for human consumption, 'food grade' nitrous oxide canisters, made for the purpose of prolonging the shelf life of whipped cream and other products are completely legal, and anyone can buy these without a permit.[14]
Words used to describe misuse in the United Kingdom include:
Supply of nitrous oxide for recreational purposes is illegal, however it is permissible to supply it for cooking and baking purposes. As a deleterious substance, the supply of the substance for the purposes of inhalation can result in a 2 year period of imprisonment.[16]
Young people exploiting a legal loophole to buy laughing gas online from eBay and Amazon are putting their lives at risk, police warned yesterday.
Thousands of canisters of the drug are being purchased via the web giants and resold at huge profit in balloons at nightclubs, bars and festivals, an expert said.
The gas is decanted from the canisters – which can cost around 30p each when bought in bulk – into the balloons and then sold for around £5 a time.
Laughing as canisters that being bought for as little as 30p a time online then resold at festivals and nightclubs for £5 a time, experts have warned
The Government outlawed the sale of nitrous oxide gas as a cheap 'high' under the Psychoactive Substances Act last year.
But Detective Constable Jamie Thompson, a drug expert for Cheshire Police, said legislation is proving difficult to implement because of vague exemptions.
The gas is still readily available to caterers as it is used to whip cream and create frothy coffees and few checks appear to be made on customers.
Mr Thompson said some users even try to claim they possess the gas for medical use, including one suspect found with 300 canisters.
'You can go on Amazon and buy as many as you want,' he said. 'These canisters are used in catering and have a legitimate purpose, but it can be misused.
'The mark up is high and profits are huge.'
The drug, which recreational users claim gives a brief sense of euphoria, has been linked to 17 deaths since 2006. Users can suffocate due to a lack of oxygen, and regular nitrous oxide use can lead to serious nerve damage.
The Home Office says retailers must ensure they only sell nitrous oxide to legitimate customers. But it is reviewing the legislation after two judges threw out cases because the gas could be interpreted as exempt, partly due to its 'analgesic effects'.
The Daily Mail discovered a thriving trade in the canisters on eBay and Amazon, with few apparent checks taking place.
Experts are warning that legislation around the illegal consumption of nitrous oxide is proving difficult to enforce because the canisters have legitimate uses, such as making whipped cream
On eBay, one company in the north of England sells 50 canisters for £26.79, with almost 3,000 units sold. Packs of 600 cost £190 – around 30p each.
A merchant on Amazon sells ten canisters for £17.30 with free delivery. This is the largest quantity available.
Speaking at the Police Federation's National Custody Seminar, Mr Thompson said the gas is banned for a reason. He added: 'There have been some difficulties with court cases where it has been argued it is medication.
'If it was administered in the back of an ambulance or a hospital I could understand this, but when it is being sold outside nightclubs in balloons probably not.
'This is something for the judges to sort out but we are having difficulty getting any significant convictions for possession with intent to supply.'
The Home Office said 300 retailers have either closed down or are no longer selling psychoactive substances due to the new legislation.
A spokesman added: 'Nitrous oxide is covered by the Psychoactive Substances Act and is illegal to supply for its psychoactive effect.
'However, the Act provides an exemption for medical products. Whether a substance is covered by this exemption is ultimately one for a court to determine based on the circumstances of each individual case.'
An eBay spokesman said vendors are banned from listing nitrous oxide as 'laughing gas', highlighting its intoxicating effect or selling paraphernalia that allows it to be misused.
He said: 'We work with regulators and the British Compressed Gases Association to ensure that all listings comply with the law.
'There are blocks in place to prevent the listing of illegal items, and we also constantly monitor our marketplace to enforce this.'
Jump to navigationJump to searchInhalant use | |
---|---|
Common household products such as nail polish contain solvents that can be concentrated and inhaled, in a manner not intended by the manufacturer, to produce intoxication. Misuse of products in this fashion can be harmful or fatal. | |
Specialty | Toxicology |
Inhalants are a broad range of household and industrial chemicals whose volatile vapors or pressurized gases can be concentrated and breathed in via the nose or mouth to produce intoxication (called 'getting high' in slang), in a manner not intended by the manufacturer. They are inhaled at room temperature through volatilization (in the case of gasoline or acetone) or from a pressurized container (e.g., nitrous oxide or butane), and do not include drugs that are sniffed after burning or heating. For example, amyl nitrite (poppers), nitrous oxide and toluene – a solvent widely used in contact cement, permanent markers, and certain types of glue – are considered inhalants, but smoking tobacco, cannabis, and crack are not, even though these drugs are inhaled as smoke.[1][2]
While a small number of inhalants are prescribed by medical professionals and used for medical purposes, as in the case of inhaled anesthetics and nitrous oxide (an anxiolytic and pain relief agent prescribed by dentists), this article focuses on inhalant use of household and industrial propellants, glues, fuels and other products in a manner not intended by the manufacturer, to produce intoxication or other psychoactive effects. These products are used as recreational drugs for their intoxicating effect. According to a 1995 report by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the most serious inhalant abuse occurs among homeless children and teens who '.. live on the streets completely without family ties.'[3] Inhalants are the only substance which is used more by younger teens than by older teens.[4] Inhalant users inhale vapor or aerosol propellant gases using plastic bags held over the mouth or by breathing from a solvent-soaked rag or an open container. The practices are known colloquially as 'sniffing', 'huffing' or 'bagging'.
The effects of inhalants range from an alcohol-like intoxication and intense euphoria to vivid hallucinations, depending on the substance and the dose. Some inhalant users are injured due to the harmful effects of the solvents or gases or due to other chemicals used in the products that they are inhaling. As with any recreational drug, users can be injured due to dangerous behavior while they are intoxicated, such as driving under the influence. In some cases, users have died from hypoxia (lack of oxygen), pneumonia, cardiac failure or arrest,[5] or aspiration of vomit. Brain damage is typically seen with chronic long-term use of solvents as opposed to short-term exposure.[6]
Even though many inhalants are legal, there have been legal actions taken in some jurisdictions to limit access by minors. While solvent glue is normally a legal product, a Scottish court has ruled that supplying glue to children is illegal if the store knows the children intend to abuse the glue. In the US, thirty-eight of 50 states have enacted laws making various inhalants unavailable to those under the age of 18, or making inhalant use illegal.
Inhalants can be classified by the intended function. Most inhalant drugs that are used non-medically are ingredients in household or industrial chemical products that are not intended to be concentrated and inhaled. A small number of recreational inhalant drugs are pharmaceutical products that are used illicitly.
Another way to categorize inhalants is by their product category. There are three main product categories: solvents; gases; and medical drugs which are used illicitly.
A wide range of volatile solvents intended for household or industrial use are inhaled as recreational drugs. This includes petroleum products (gasoline and kerosene), toluene (used in paint thinner, permanent markers, contact cement and model glue), and acetone (used in nail polish remover). These solvents vaporize at room temperature. Ethanol (the alcohol which is normally drunk) is sometimes inhaled, but this cannot be done at room temperature. The ethanol must be converted from liquid into gaseous state (vapor) or aerosol (mist),[7] in some cases using a nebulizer, a machine that agitates the liquid into an aerosol. The sale of nebulizers for inhaling ethanol was banned in some US states due to safety concerns.[8]
A number of gases intended for household or industrial use are inhaled as recreational drugs. This includes chlorofluorocarbons used in aerosols and propellants (e.g., aerosol hair spray, aerosol deodorant). A gas used as a propellant in whipped cream aerosol containers, nitrous oxide, is used as a recreational drug. Pressurized canisters of propane and butane gas, both of which are intended for use as fuels, are used as inhalants.
Several medical anesthetics are used as recreational drugs, including diethyl ether (a drug that is no longer used medically, due to its high flammability and the development of safer alternatives) and nitrous oxide, which is widely used in the 2010s by dentists as an anti-anxiety drug during dental procedures. Diethyl ether has a long history of use as a recreational drug. The effects of ether intoxication are similar to those of alcohol intoxication, but more potent. Also, due to NMDA antagonism, the user may experience all the psychedelic effects present in classical dissociatives such as ketamine in forms of thought loops and feeling of mind being disconnected from one's body. Nitrous oxide is a dental anesthetic which is used as a recreational drug, either by users who have access to medical-grade gas canisters (e.g., dental hygienists or dentists) or by using the gas contained in whipped cream aerosol containers. Nitrous oxide inhalation can cause pain relief, depersonalisation, derealisation, dizziness, euphoria, and some sound distortion.[9]
It is also possible to classify inhalants by the effect they have on the body. Solvents such as toluene and gasoline act as depressants, causing users to feel relaxed and sleepy. Many inhalants act primarily as asphyxiant gases, with their primary effect due to oxygen deprivation.[10]Nitrous oxide can be categorized as a dissociative drug, as it can cause visual and auditory hallucinations. Other agents may have more direct effects at receptors, as inhalants exhibit a variety of mechanisms of action. The mechanisms of action of many non-medical inhalants have not been well elucidated. Anesthetic gases used for surgery, such as nitrous oxide or enflurane, are believed to induce anesthesia primarily by acting as NMDA receptor antagonists, open channel blockers that bind to the inside of the calcium channels on the outer surface of the neuron, and provide high levels of NMDA receptor blockade for a short period of time.
This makes inhaled anesthetic gases different from other NMDA antagonists, such as ketamine, which bind to a regulatory site on the NMDA-sensitive calcium transporter complex and provide slightly lower levels of NMDA blockade, but for a longer and much more predictable duration. This makes a deeper level of anesthesia achievable more easily using anesthetic gases but can also make them more dangerous than other drugs used for this purpose.
Inhalants can also be classified by chemical structure.[11] Classes include:
Category | ICD-10 | Examples | Example image |
---|---|---|---|
aliphatic hydrocarbons | T52.0 | petroleum products (gasoline and kerosene), propane, butane | |
aromatic hydrocarbons | T52.1-T52.2 | toluene (used in paint thinner and model glue), xylene | |
ketones | T52.4 | acetone (used in nail polish remover) | |
haloalkanes | T53 | hydrofluorocarbons, chlorofluorocarbons (including many aerosols and propellants), 1,1,1-Trichloroethane, trichloroethylene, chloroform (the latter two being antiquated inhalational anaesthetics) | |
nitrites | T65.3, T65.5 | alkyl nitrites (poppers such as amyl nitrite) | |
nitrous oxide | T59.0 | nitrous oxide (found in whipped cream canisters) |
Inhalant users inhale vapors or aerosol propellant gases using plastic bags held over the mouth or by breathing from an open container of solvents, such as gasoline or paint thinner. Nitrous oxide gases from whipped cream aerosol cans, aerosol hairspray or non-stick frying spray are sprayed into plastic bags. Some nitrous oxide users spray the gas into balloons. When inhaling non-stick cooking spray or other aerosol products, some users may filter the aerosolized particles out with a rag. Some gases, such as propane and butane gases, are inhaled directly from the canister. Once these solvents or gases are inhaled, the extensive capillary surface of the lungs rapidly absorb the solvent or gas, and blood levels peak rapidly. The intoxication effects occur so quickly that the effects of inhalation can resemble the intensity of effects produced by intravenous injection of other psychoactive drugs.[12] Some harm reduction experts encourage glue sniffers to use paper bags rather than thin plastic bags, because plastic bags greatly increase the risk of suffocation, as plastic bags are more likely to stick to the users' nose and mouth while she or he is intoxicated.
Ethanol is also inhaled, either by vaporizing it by pouring it over dry ice in a narrow container and inhaling with a straw or by pouring alcohol in a corked bottle with a pipe, and then using a bicycle pump to make a spray. Alcohol can be vaporized using a simple container and open-flame heater.[13] Medical devices such as asthma nebulizers and inhalers were also reported as means of application.[14] The practice gained popularity in 2004, with marketing of the device dubbed AWOL (Alcohol without liquid), a play on the military term AWOL (Absent Without Leave).[7] AWOL, created by British businessman Dominic Simler,[7] was first introduced in Asia and Europe, and then in United States in August 2004. AWOL was used by nightclubs, at gatherings and parties, and it garnered attraction as a novelty, as people 'enjoyed passing it around in a group'.[15] AWOL uses a nebulizer, a machine that agitates the liquid into an aerosol. AWOL's official website states that 'AWOL and AWOL 1 are powered by Electrical Air Compressors while AWOL 2 and AWOL 3 are powered by electrical oxygen generators',[16] which refer to a couple of mechanisms used by the nebulizer drug delivery device for inhalation. Although the AWOL machine is marketed as having no downsides, such as the lack of calories or hangovers, Amanda Shaffer of Slate describes these claims as 'dubious at best'.[7] Although inhaled alcohol does reduce the caloric content, the savings are minimal.[17] After expressed safety and health concerns, sale or use of AWOL machines was banned in a number of American states.[8]
The effects of solvent intoxication can vary widely depending on the dose and what type of solvent or gas is inhaled. A person who has inhaled a small amount of rubber cement or paint thinner vapor may be impaired in a manner resembling alcohol inebriation. A person who has inhaled a larger quantity of solvents or gases, or a stronger chemical, may experience stronger effects such as distortion in perceptions of time and space, hallucinations, and emotional disturbances. The effects of inhalant use are also modified by the combined use of inhalants and alcohol or other drugs.
In the short term, many users experience headache, nausea and vomiting, slurred speech, loss of motor coordination, and wheezing. A characteristic 'glue sniffer's rash' around the nose and mouth is sometimes seen after prolonged use. An odor of paint or solvents on clothes, skin, and breath is sometimes a sign of inhalant abuse, and paint or solvent residues can sometimes emerge in sweat.[18]
According to NIH, even a single session of inhalant abuse 'can disrupt heart rhythms and lower oxygen levels', which can lead to death. 'Regular abuse can result in serious harm to the brain, heart, kidneys and liver.'[19]
Statistics on deaths caused by inhalant abuse are difficult to determine. It may be severely under-reported, because death is often attributed to a discrete event such as a stroke or a heart attack, even if the event happened because of inhalant abuse.[21] Inhalant use or abuse was mentioned on 144 death certificates in Texas during the period 1988–1998 and was reported in 39 deaths in Virginia between 1987 and 1996 from acute voluntary exposure to abused inhalants.[22]
Regardless of which inhalant is used, inhaling vapours or gases can lead to injury or death. One major risk is hypoxia (lack of oxygen), which can occur due to inhaling fumes from a plastic bag, or from using proper inhalation mask equipment (e.g., a medical mask for nitrous oxide) but not adding oxygen or room air. Another danger is freezing the throat. When a gas that was stored under high pressure is released, it cools abruptly and can cause frostbite if it is inhaled directly from the container. This can occur, for example, with inhaling nitrous oxide. When nitrous oxide is used as an automotive power adder, its cooling effect is used to make the fuel-air charge denser. In a person, this effect is potentially lethal. Many inhalants are volatile organic chemicals and can catch fire or explode, especially when combined with smoking. As with many other drugs, users may also injure themselves due to loss of coordination or impaired judgment, especially if they attempt to drive.
Solvents have many potential risks in common, including pneumonia, cardiac failure or arrest,[5] and aspiration of vomit. The inhaling of some solvents can cause hearing loss, limb spasms, and damage to the central nervous system and brain.[5] Serious but potentially reversible effects include liver and kidney damage and blood-oxygen depletion. Death from inhalants is generally caused by a very high concentration of fumes. Deliberately inhaling solvents from an attached paper or plastic bag or in a closed area greatly increases the chances of suffocation. Brain damage is typically seen with chronic long-term use as opposed to short-term exposure.[6]Parkinsonism (see: Signs and symptoms of Parkinson's disease) has been associated with huffing.[23]
Female inhalant users who are pregnant may have adverse effects on the fetus, and the baby may be smaller when it is born and may need additional health care (similar to those seen with alcohol – fetal alcohol syndrome). There is some evidence of birth defects and disabilities in babies born to women who sniffed solvents such as gasoline.
In the short term, death from solvent abuse occurs most commonly from aspiration of vomit while unconscious or from a combination of respiratory depression and hypoxia, the second cause being especially a risk with heavier-than-air vapors such as butane or gasoline vapor. Deaths typically occur from complications related to excessive sedation and vomiting. Actual overdose from the drug does occur, however, and inhaled solvent abuse is statistically more likely to result in life-threatening respiratory depression than intravenous use of opiates such as heroin. Most deaths from solvent abuse could be prevented if individuals were resuscitated quickly when they stopped breathing and their airway cleared if they vomited. However, most inhalant abuse takes place when people inhale solvents by themselves or in groups of people who are intoxicated. Certain solvents are more hazardous than others, such as gasoline.
In contrast, a few inhalants like amyl nitrate and diethyl ether have medical applications and are not toxic in the same sense as solvents, though they can still be dangerous when used recreationally. Nitrous oxide is thought to be particularly non-toxic, though heavy long-term use can lead to a variety of serious health problems linked to destruction of vitamin B12 and folic acid.[24][25]
The hypoxic effect of inhalants can cause damage to many organ systems (particularly the brain, which has a very low tolerance for oxygen deprivation), but there can also be additional toxicity resulting from either the physical properties of the compound itself or additional ingredients present in a product. Organochlorine solvents are particularly hazardous; many of these are now restricted in developed countries due to their environmental impact.
Toxicity may also result from the pharmacological properties of the drug; excess NMDA antagonism can completely block calcium influx into neurons and provoke cell death through apoptosis,[citation needed] although this is more likely to be a long-term result of chronic solvent abuse than a consequence of short-term use.
Inhaling butane gas can cause drowsiness, narcosis, asphyxia, and cardiac arrhythmia.[32] Butane is the most commonly misused volatile solvent in the UK and caused 52% of solvent-related deaths in 2000. When butane is sprayed directly into the throat, the jet of fluid can cool rapidly to −20 °C by adiabatic expansion, causing prolonged laryngospasm.[33][34] Sudden sniffing death syndrome is commonly known as SSDS.Some inhalants can also indirectly cause sudden death by cardiac arrest, in a syndrome known as 'sudden sniffing death'.[35] The anaesthetic gases present in the inhalants appear to sensitize the user to adrenaline and, in this state, a sudden surge of adrenaline (e.g., from a frightening hallucination or run-in with aggressors), may cause fatal cardiac arrhythmia.[36]
Furthermore, the inhalation of any gas that is capable of displacing oxygen in the lungs (especially gases heavier than oxygen) carries the risk of hypoxia as a result of the very mechanism by which breathing is triggered. Since reflexive breathing is prompted by elevated carbon dioxide levels (rather than diminished blood oxygen levels), breathing a concentrated, relatively inert gas (such as computer-duster tetrafluoroethane or nitrous oxide) that removes carbon dioxide from the blood without replacing it with oxygen will produce no outward signs of suffocation even when the brain is experiencing hypoxia. Once full symptoms of hypoxia appear, it may be too late to breathe without assistance, especially if the gas is heavy enough to lodge in the lungs for extended periods. Even completely inert gases, such as argon, can have this effect if oxygen is largely excluded.
Even though solvent glue is normally a legal product, there is a case where a court has ruled that supplying glue to children is illegal. Khaliq v HM Advocate was a Scottish criminal case decided by the High Court of Justiciary on appeal, in which it was decided that it was an offence at common law to supply glue sniffing materials that were otherwise legal in the knowledge that they would be used recreationally by children. Two shopkeepers in Glasgow were arrested and charged with supplying to children 'glue-sniffing kits' consisting of a quantity of petroleum-based glue in a plastic bag. They argued there was nothing illegal about the items that they had supplied. On appeal, the High Court took the view that, even though glue and plastic bags might be perfectly legal, everyday items, the two shopkeepers knew perfectly well that the children were going to use the articles as inhalants and the charge on the indictment should stand.[37] When the case came to trial at Glasgow High Court the two were sentenced to three years' imprisonment.
'Thirty-eight of 50 [US] states have enacted laws making various inhalants unavailable to those under the age of 18. Other states prohibit the sale of these items to anyone without recognition of purpose for purchase. Some states mandate laws against using these products for purposes of getting high, while some states have laws about possessing certain inhalants. Nearly every state imposes fines and jail terms for violation of their specific laws.'[38]
'Connecticut law bans the unauthorized manufacture or compounding, possession, control, sale, delivery, or administration of any 'restricted substance'. It defines restricted substances as.. specific volatile substances if they are sold, compounded, possessed or controlled, or delivered or administered to another person for breathing, inhaling, sniffing, or drinking to induce a stimulant, depressant, or hallucinogenic effect. Violators can be fined up to $100.' As well, 24 states 'ban the use, possession, or sale or other distribution of inhalants.. like glue and solvents.'[39]
'Louisiana prohibits the sale, transfer, or possession of model glue and inhalable toluene substances to minors. In Ohio, it is illegal to inhale certain compounds for intoxication—a common, general prohibition other states have enacted.Some states draw their prohibitions more narrowly.. In Massachusetts, retailers must ask minors for identification before selling them glue or cement that contains a solvent that can release toxic vapors.'[40]
'New Jersey.. prohibits selling or offering to sell minors products containing chlorofluorocarbon that is used in refrigerant.'[40]
The sale of alkyl nitrite-based poppers was banned in Canada in 2013. Although not considered a narcotic and not illegal to possess or use, they are considered a drug. Sales that are not authorized can now be punished with fines and prison.[41] Since 2007, reformulated poppers containing isopropyl nitrite are sold in Europe because only isobutyl nitrite is prohibited. In France, the sale of products containing butyl nitrite, pentyl nitrite, or isomers thereof, has been prohibited since 1990 on grounds of danger to consumers.[42] In 2007, the government extended this prohibition to all alkyl nitrites that were not authorized for sale as drugs.[43] After litigation by sex shop owners, this extension was quashed by the Council of State on the grounds that the government had failed to justify such a blanket prohibition: according to the court, the risks cited, concerning rare accidents often following abnormal usage, rather justified compulsory warnings on the packaging.[44]
In the United Kingdom, poppers are widely available and frequently (legally) sold in gay clubs/bars, sex shops, drug paraphernalia head shops, over the Internet and on markets.[45] It is illegal under Medicines Act 1968 to sell them advertised for human consumption, and in order to bypass this, they are usually sold as odorizers. In the U.S., originally marketed as a prescription drug in 1937, amyl nitrite remained so until 1960, when the Food and Drug Administration removed the prescription requirement due to its safety record. This requirement was reinstated in 1969, after observation of an increase in recreational use. Other alkyl nitrites were outlawed in the U.S. by Congress through the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988. The law includes an exception for commercial purposes. The term commercial purpose is defined to mean any use other than for the production of consumer products containing volatile alkyl nitrites meant for inhaling or otherwise introducing volatile alkyl nitrites into the human body for euphoric or physical effects.[46] The law came into effect in 1990. Visits to retail outlets selling these products reveal that some manufacturers have since reformulated their products to abide by the regulations, through the use of the legal cyclohexyl nitrite as the primary ingredient in their products, which are sold as video head cleaners, polish removers, or room odorants.
In the United States, possession of nitrous oxide is legal under federal law and is not subject to DEA purview.[47] It is, however, regulated by the Food and Drug Administration under the Food Drug and Cosmetics Act; prosecution is possible under its 'misbranding' clauses, prohibiting the sale or distribution of nitrous oxide for the purpose of human consumption as a recreational drug. Many states have laws regulating the possession, sale, and distribution of nitrous oxide. Such laws usually ban distribution to minors or limit the amount of nitrous oxide that may be sold without special license.[citation needed] For example, in the state of California, possession for recreational use is prohibited and qualifies as a misdemeanour.[48] In New Zealand, the Ministry of Health has warned that nitrous oxide is a prescription medicine, and its sale or possession without a prescription is an offence under the Medicines Act.[49] This statement would seemingly prohibit all non-medicinal uses of the chemical, though it is implied that only recreational use will be legally targeted. In India, for general anaesthesia purposes, nitrous oxide is available as Nitrous Oxide IP. India's gas cylinder rules (1985) permit the transfer of gas from one cylinder to another for breathing purposes. Because India's Food & Drug Authority (FDA-India) rules state that transferring a drug from one container to another (refilling) is equivalent to manufacturing, anyone found doing so must possess a drug manufacturing license.
Inhalant drugs are often used by children, teenagers, incarcerated or institutionalized people, and impoverished people, because these solvents and gases are ingredients in hundreds of legally available, inexpensive products, such as deodorant sprays, hair spray, contact cement and aerosol air fresheners. However, most users tend to be '.. adolescents (between the ages of 12 and 17).'[50] In some countries, chronic, heavy inhalant use is concentrated in marginalized, impoverished communities.[51][52] Young people who become chronic, heavy inhalant abusers are also more likely to be those who are isolated from their families and community. The article 'Epidemiology of Inhalant Abuse: An International Perspective' notes that '[t]he most serious form of obsession with inhalant use probably occurs in countries other than the United States where young children live on the streets completely without family ties. These groups almost always use inhalants at very high levels (Leal et al. 1978). This isolation can make it harder to keep in touch with the sniffer and encourage him or her to stop sniffing.'[3]
The article also states that '.. high [inhalant use] rates among barrioHispanics almost undoubtedly are related to the poverty, lack of opportunity, and social dysfunction that occur in barrios' and states that the '.. same general tendency appears for Native-American youth' because '.. Indian reservations are among the most disadvantaged environments in the United States; there are high rates of unemployment, little opportunity, and high rates of alcoholism and other health problems.'[3] There are a wide range of social problems associated with inhalant use, such as feelings of distress, anxiety and grief for the community; violence and damage to property; violent crime; stresses on the juvenile justice system; and stresses on youth agencies and support services.[citation needed]
Glue and gasoline sniffing is also a problem in parts of Africa, especially with street children. In India and South Asia, three of the most widely abused inhalants are the Dendrite brand and other forms of contact adhesives and rubber cements manufactured in Kolkata, and toluenes in paint thinners. Genkem is a brand of glue which had become the generic name for all the glues used by glue-sniffing children in Africa before the manufacturer replaced n-hexane in its ingredients in 2000.[53]
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has reported that glue sniffing is at the core of 'street culture' in Nairobi, Kenya, and that the majority of street children in the city are habitual solvent users.[54] Research conducted by Cottrell-Boyce for the African Journal of Drug and Alcohol Studies found that glue sniffing amongst Kenyan street children was primarily functional – dulling the senses against the hardship of life on the street – but it also provided a link to the support structure of the 'street family' as a potent symbol of shared experience.[54]
Similar incidents of glue sniffing among destitute youth in the Philippines have also been reported, most commonly from groups of street children and teenagers collectively known as 'Rugby' boys,[55] which were named after a brand of toluene-laden contact cement. Other toluene-containing substances have also been subject to abuse, most notably the Vulca Seal brand of roof sealants. Bostik Philippines, which currently owns the Rugby and Vulca Seal brands, has since responded to the issue by adding bitterants such as mustard oil to their Rugby line,[56] as well as reformulating it by replacing toluene with xylene. Several other manufacturers have also followed suit.
Another very common inhalant is Erase-X, a correction fluid that contains toluene. It has become very common for school and college students to use it, because it is easily available in stationery shops in India. This fluid is also used by street and working children in Delhi.[57]
In the UK, marginalized youth use a number of inhalants, such as solvents and propellants. In Russia and Eastern Europe, gasoline sniffing became common on Russian ships following attempts to limit the supply of alcohol to ship crews in the 1980s. The documentary Children Underground depicts the huffing of a solvent called Aurolac (a product used in chroming) by Romanian homeless children. During the Interbellum the inhalation of ether (etheromania) was widespread in some regions of Poland, especially in Upper Silesia—tens of thousands of people were affected by this problem.[58]
In Canada, Native children in the isolated Northern Labrador community of Davis Inlet were the focus of national concern in 1993, when many were found to be sniffing gasoline. The Canadian and provincial Newfoundland and Labrador governments intervened on a number of occasions, sending many children away for treatment. Despite being moved to the new community of Natuashish in 2002, serious inhalant abuse problems have continued. Similar problems were reported in Sheshatshiu in 2000 and also in Pikangikum First Nation.[59] In 2012, the issue once again made the news media in Canada.[60] In Mexico, the inhaling of a mixture of gasoline and industrial solvents, known locally as 'Activo' or 'Chemo', has risen in popularity among the homeless and among the street children of Mexico City in recent years. The mixture is poured onto a handkerchief and inhaled while held in one's fist.
In the US, ether was used as a recreational drug during the 1930s Prohibition era, when alcohol was made illegal. Ether was either sniffed or drunk and, in some towns, replaced alcohol entirely. However, the risk of death from excessive sedation or overdose is greater than that with alcohol, and ether drinking is associated with damage to the stomach and gastrointestinal tract.[61] Use of glue, paint and gasoline became more common after the 1950s. Model airplane glue-sniffing as problematic behavior among youth was first reported in 1959, and increased in the 1960s.[62] Abuse of aerosol sprays became more common in the 1980s, as older propellants such as CFCs were phased out and replaced by more environmentally friendly compounds such as propane and butane. Most inhalant solvents and gases are not regulated under drug laws such as the United States' Controlled Substances Act. However, many US states and Canadian cities have placed restrictions on the sale of some solvent-containing products to minors, particularly for products widely associated with sniffing, such as model cement. The practice of inhaling such substances is sometimes colloquially referred to as huffing, sniffing (or glue sniffing), dusting, or chroming.
Australia has long faced a petrol (gasoline) sniffing problem in isolated and impoverished aboriginal communities. Although some sources argue that sniffing was introduced by United Statesservicemen stationed in the nation's Top End during World War II[63] or through experimentation by 1940s-era Cobourg Peninsula sawmill workers,[64] other sources claim that inhalant abuse (such as glue inhalation) emerged in Australia in the late 1960s.[3] Chronic, heavy petrol sniffing appears to occur among remote, impoverished indigenous communities, where the ready accessibility of petrol has helped to make it a common substance for abuse.
In Australia, petrol sniffing now occurs widely throughout remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, Western Australia, northern parts of South Australia and Queensland. The number of people sniffing petrol goes up and down over time as young people experiment or sniff occasionally. 'Boss', or chronic, sniffers may move in and out of communities; they are often responsible for encouraging young people to take it up.[65]
A 1983 survey of 4,165 secondary students in New South Wales showed that solvents and aerosols ranked just after analgesics (e.g., codeine pills) and alcohol for drugs that were abused. This 1983 study did not find any common usage patterns or social class factors.[3] The causes of death for inhalant users in Australia included pneumonia, cardiac failure/arrest, aspiration of vomit, and burns. In 1985, there were 14 communities in Central Australia reporting young people sniffing. In July 1997, it was estimated that there were around 200 young people sniffing petrol across 10 communities in Central Australia. Approximately 40 were classified as chronic sniffers. There have been reports of young Aboriginal people sniffing petrol in the urban areas around Darwin and Alice Springs.
In 2005, the Government of Australia and BP Australia began the usage of opal fuel in remote areas prone to petrol sniffing.[66] Opal is a non-sniffable fuel (which is much less likely to cause a high) and has made a difference in some indigenous communities.
One of the early musical references to inhalant use occurs in the 1974 Elton John song 'The Bitch Is Back', in the line 'I get high in the evening sniffing pots of glue.' Inhalant use, especially glue sniffing, is widely associated with the late-1970s punk youth subculture in the UK and North America. Raymond Cochrane and Douglas Carroll claim that when glue sniffing became widespread in the late 1970s, it was 'adopted by punks because public [negative] perceptions of sniffing fitted in with their self-image' as rebels against societal values.[67] While punks at first used inhalants 'experimentally and as a cheap high, adult disgust and hostility [to the practice] encouraged punks to use glue sniffing as a way of shocking society.' As well, using inhalants was a way of expressing their anti-corporatist DIY (do it yourself) credo;[67] by using inexpensive household products as inhalants, punks did not have to purchase industrially manufactured liquor or beer.
One history of the punk subculture argues that 'substance abuse was often referred to in the music and did become synonymous with the genre, glue sniffing especially' because the youths' 'faith in the future had died and that the youth just didn't care anymore' due to the 'awareness of the threat of nuclear war and a pervasive sense of doom.' In a BBC interview with a person who was a punk in the late 1970s, they said that 'there was a real fear of imminent nuclear war—people were sniffing glue knowing that it could kill them, but they didn't care because they believed that very soon everybody would be dead anyway.'
A number of 1970s punk rock and 1980s hardcore punk songs refer to inhalant use. The Ramones, an influential early US punk band, referred to inhalant use in several of their songs. The song 'Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue' describes adolescent boredom, and the song 'Carbona not Glue' states, 'My brain is stuck from shooting glue.' An influential punk fanzine about the subculture and music took its name (Sniffin' Glue) from the Ramones song. The 1980s punk band The Dead Milkmen wrote a song, 'Life is Shit' from their album Beelzebubba, about two friends hallucinating after sniffing glue. Punk-band-turned-hip-hop group the Beastie Boys penned a song 'Hold it Now – Hit It', which includes the line 'cause I'm beer drinkin, breath stinkin, sniffing glue.' Pop punk band Sum 41 wrote a song, 'Fat Lip', which refers to a character who does not 'make sense from all the gas you be huffing..' The song Lança-perfume, written and performed by Brazilian popstar Rita Lee, became a national hit in 1980. The song is about chloroethane and its widespread recreational sale and use during the rise of Brazil's carnivals.
Inhalants are referred to by bands from other genres, including several grunge bands—an early 1990s genre that was influenced by punk rock. The 1990s grunge band Nirvana, which was influenced by punk music, penned a song, 'Dumb', in which Kurt Cobain sings 'my heart is broke/But I have some glue/help me inhale /And mend it with you'. L7, an all-female grunge band, penned a song titled 'Scrap' about a skinhead who inhales spray-paint fumes until his mind 'starts to gel'. Also in the 1990s, the Britpop band Suede had a UK hit with their song 'Animal Nitrate' whose title is a thinly veiled reference to amyl nitrite. The Beck song 'Fume' from his 'Fresh Meat and Old Slabs' release is about inhaling nitrous oxide. Another Beck song, 'Cold Ass Fashion', contains the line 'O.G. – Original Gluesniffer!' Primus's 1998 song 'Lacquer Head' is about adolescents who use inhalants to get high. Hip hop performer Eminem wrote a song, 'Bad Meets Evil', which refers to breathing '.. ether in three lethal amounts.' The Brian Jonestown Massacre, a retro-rock band from the 1990s, has a song 'Hyperventilation', which is about sniffing model-airplane cement. Frank Zappa's song 'Teenage Wind' from 1981 has a reference to glue sniffing: 'Nothing left to do but get out the 'ol glue; Parents, parents; Sniff it good now..'
A number of films have depicted or referred to the use of solvent inhalants. In the 1980 comedy film Airplane!, the character of McCroskey (Lloyd Bridges) refers to his inhalant use when he states, 'I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue.' In the 1996 film Citizen Ruth, the character Ruth (Laura Dern), a homeless drifter, is depicted inhaling patio sealant from a paper bag in an alleyway. In the tragicomedy Love Liza, the main character, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, plays a man who takes up building remote-controlled airplanes as a hobby to give him an excuse to sniff the fuel in the wake of his wife's suicide.
Harmony Korine's 1997 Gummo depicts adolescent boys inhaling contact cement for a high. Edet Belzberg's 2001 documentary Children Underground chronicles the lives of Romanian street children addicted to inhaling paint. In The Basketball Diaries, a group of boys are huffing carbona cleaning liquid at 3 minutes and 27 seconds into the movie; further on, a boy is reading a diary describing the experience of sniffing the cleaning liquid.
In the David Lynch film Blue Velvet, the bizarre and manipulative character played by Dennis Hopper uses a mask to inhale amyl nitrite.[citation needed] In Little Shop of Horrors, Steve Martin's character dies from nitrous oxide inhalation. The 1999 independent film Boys Don't Cry depicts two young low-income women inhaling aerosol computer cleaner (compressed gas) for a buzz. In The Cider House Rules, Michael Caine's character is addicted to inhaling ether vapors.
In Thirteen, the main character, a teen, uses a can of aerosol computer cleaner to get high. In the action movie Shooter, an ex-serviceman on the run from the law (Mark Wahlberg) inhales nitrous oxide gas from a number of Whip-It! whipped cream canisters until he becomes unconscious. The South African film The Wooden Camera also depicts the use of inhalants by one of the main characters, a homeless teen, and their use in terms of socio-economic stratification. The title characters in Samson and Delilah sniff petrol; in Samson's case, possibly causing brain damage.
In the 2004 film Taxi, Queen Latifah and Jimmy Fallon are trapped in a room with a burst tank containing nitrous oxide. Queen Latifah's character curses at Fallon while they both laugh hysterically. Fallon's character asks if it is possible to die from nitrous oxide, to which Queen Latifah's character responds with 'It's laughing gas, stupid!' Neither of them suffered any side effects other than their voices becoming much deeper while in the room.
In the French horror film Them, (2006) a French couple living in Romania are pursued by a gang of street children who break into their home at night. Olivia Bonamy's character is later tortured and forced to inhale aurolac from a silver-colored bag. During a flashback scene in the 2001 film Hannibal, Hannibal Lecter gets Mason Verger high on amyl nitrite poppers, then convinces Verger to cut off his own face and feed it to his dogs.
The science fiction story 'Waterspider' by Philip K. Dick (first published in January 1964 in If magazine) contains a scene in which characters from the future are discussing the culture of the early 1950s. One character says: 'You mean he sniffed what they called 'airplane dope'? He was a 'glue-sniffer'?', to which another character replies: 'Hardly. That was a mania among adolescents and did not become widespread in fact until a decade later. No, I am speaking about imbibing alcohol.'[68]
The book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas describes how the two main characters inhale diethyl ether and amyl nitrite.
In the comedy series Newman and Baddiel in Pieces, Rob Newman's inhaling gas from a foghorn was a running joke in the series. One episode of the Jeremy Kyle Show featured a woman with a 20-year butane gas addiction.[69] In the series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Charlie Kelly has an addiction to huffing glue. Additionally, season nine episode 8 shows Dennis, Mac and Dee getting a can of gasoline to use as a solvent, but instead end up taking turns huffing from the canister.
A 2008 episode of the reality show Intervention (season 5, episode 9) featured Allison, who was addicted to huffing computer duster for the short-lived, psychoactive effects. Allison has since achieved a small but significant cult following among bloggers and YouTube users. Several remixes of scenes from Allison's episode can be found online.[citation needed] Since 2009, Allison has worked with drug and alcohol treatment centers in Los Angeles County. In the third episode of season 5 of American Dad!, titled 'Home Adrone', Roger asks an airline stewardess to bring him industrial adhesive and a plastic bag. In the seventh episode of the fourteenth season of South Park, Towelie, an anthropomorphic towel, develops an addiction to inhaling computer duster. In the show Squidbilles, the main character Early Cuyler is often seen inhaling gas or other substances.
Classification |
|
---|---|
External resources |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Inhalants. |