Two girls smoked more than 200 bottles in one hour! What is the "laughing gas" that can paralyze or even kill people?

Recently, two girls in Beijing were administratively detained for inhaling more than 200 bottles of "laughing gas" in one hour.

As early as 2017, some netizens claimed that they had to interrupt their overseas studies due to physical disorders caused by inhaling "laughing gas".

Long-term use can cause mental disorder, depression, paralysis and even death. Is there anyone who doesn't know what "laughing gas" is?

So what exactly is "laughing gas"? What harm does "laughing gas" do to the human body?

What is "laughing gas"?

The chemical name of "laughing gas" is nitrous oxide or nitrous oxide, and its chemical formula is N2O. It is a colorless gas at room temperature and pressure with a faint sweet smell. It is the same as the well-known air pollutants - nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide, both of which are nitrogen oxides, but their properties are very different.

The gas was discovered by British chemist Joseph Priestley in 1772. In 1799, another British chemist Humphry Davy discovered by chance that nitrous oxide could make people feel happy and laugh, which is where the name "laughing gas" came from.

Why does "laughing gas" make people laugh? This is because the inhaled "laughing gas" stimulates the release of endorphins in the human body, thus producing a sense of excitement and pleasure.

What are the uses of “laughing gas”?

Anesthetics

In medicine, it can be used as an anesthetic with oxygen. In 1844, Wells, a dentist in Boston, USA, noticed that the inhalation of nitrous oxide could make people lose their sense of pain for a short period of time while maintaining consciousness. This opened the door to the use of nitrous oxide as a dental anesthetic. Later, nitrous oxide was also expanded to obstetric analgesia and the treatment of mental illness. The principle of nitrous oxide as an anesthetic is related to the blocking of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NDMA).

food additives

Nitrous oxide can be used for stirring, foaming, shaping, antibacterial and preservation in food processing. For example, it can be used in whipped cream spray cans to make decorating cream, extend the storage life of lychee and longan seeds, and extend the shelf life of bananas, tomatoes and other fruits.

Scientific research and industrial production

It can be used as a propellant in the aerospace industry and as a combustion aid in racing cars. In the electronics industry, it can be used to manufacture electronic films for electronic devices such as semiconductors, liquid crystals, light-emitting diodes and integrated circuits. It is an important electronic specialty gas.

In addition, high-purity nitrous oxide gas can be used as flame atomic absorption spectrometry in chemical analysis, which can improve the sensitivity of non-volatile elements, and can be used to determine some trace metal elements and as a raw material for synthesizing other chemical reagents, supercritical fluid extraction agents, vacuum leak detection agents, etc.

Under the guidance of doctors and the monitoring of instruments, the harm of inhaling nitrous oxide to the human body can be ignored. However, studies have shown that the long-term use of large doses of nitrous oxide is no less harmful to the human body than drugs.

What are the dangers of “laughing gas”?

According to the provisions of my country's current criminal law and drug control law, drugs refer to opium, heroin, methamphetamine (ice), morphine, marijuana, cocaine, and other narcotic drugs and psychotropic drugs that can cause addiction and are regulated by the state.

Laughing gas is also addictive, but it is not currently a drug in the legal sense. It is only a dangerous chemical. Those who produce and sell it in violation of regulations will be punished accordingly.

Laughing gas does not support breathing and diffuses very quickly in the human body. Inhaling high concentrations of laughing gas can easily lead to hypoxemia, which can cause hypoxia and coma at the mildest, or suffocation and death at the worst. Long-term abuse of laughing gas mainly damages the nervous system and blood system. The specific hazards are as follows:

1. Affects the metabolic process of vitamin B12, thereby damaging the nervous system, causing symptoms such as numbness and weakness in the limbs, frequent falls, and eventually paralysis.

2. Affects DNA synthesis and causes pernicious anemia.

3. It causes symptoms such as memory loss, poor cognitive ability, and even mental abnormalities, such as auditory hallucinations, suspicion, and delusions.

4. People who abuse nitrous oxide may suffer nerve damage or develop mental symptoms, and may also engage in negative social behaviors such as destroying property and hurting others, resulting in serious consequences.

In addition, the abuse of nitrous oxide will also damage the environment. Nitric oxide seriously damages the ozone layer, and its global warming potential is about 300 times that of carbon dioxide, making it the third largest greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide and methane.

In recent years, due to the low price of nitrous oxide, easy access to it, and the fact that its harmfulness is underestimated, the age of nitrous oxide users has become younger.

Laughing gas users are curious

Or for the pursuit of momentary pleasure

Often end up getting addicted

Unable to extricate oneself

Cherish life

Stay away from laughing gas

Expert of this article: Tang Yu, Master of Analytical Chemistry, Hunan University

This article was reviewed by Chu Yuhao, PhD from Beijing University of Chemical Technology, engineer at Sinopec Beijing Research Institute of Chemical Industry