About
Community
Bad Ideas
Drugs
Booze - The Legal Drug
Legal Issues of Drug Use
Marijuana
Miscellaneous Drug Information
Nitrous
OTC Drugs and Household Items
Psychedelics
Rare and Exotic Drugs
Speedy Drugs
Ego
Erotica
Fringe
Society
Technology
register | bbs | search | rss | faq | about
meet up | add to del.icio.us | digg it

The Dangers of Inhaling Nitrous

by Matt Baggott


NOTICE: TO ALL CONCERNED Certain text files and messages contained on this site deal with activities and devices which would be in violation of various Federal, State, and local laws if actually carried out or constructed. The webmasters of this site do not advocate the breaking of any law. Our text files and message bases are for informational purposes only. We recommend that you contact your local law enforcement officials before undertaking any project based upon any information obtained from this or any other web site. We do not guarantee that any of the information contained on this system is correct, workable, or factual. We are not responsible for, nor do we assume any liability for, damages resulting from the use of any information on this site.

First, there are the dangers which accompany the inhalation of any compressed gas (making sure you get enough air, making sure you don't freeze your lips or inflate your head, making sure you are sitting down and won't hurt yourself if you get dizzy).

Second, there are the health effects specific to nitrous oxide. There have been reports of immunological and reproductive disturbances in professionals who are chronically exposed to nitrous oxide. The immunological disturbances are documented by Peric et al (1991) _Anaethesia_ 46: 531-7. Apparently anaesthetic personnel had been complaining about weakness and recurrent infections and decreased peripheral blood leukocyte counts has been found. The operating rooms were found to be improperly ventilated, causing nitrous oxide and halothane (another anaesthetic) to remain in the air. Even after a 3-4 week holiday, some personnel has decreased B lymphocytes and increased red cell count, haemoglobin concentration and haematocrit and other disturbances. I don't have a reference handy for the reproductive disturbances, but the study basically found that women who were chronically exposed to nitrous had difficulty becoming pregnant. It should be noted that these health effects are the result of CHRONIC exposure; a single balloon at a Dead show (or a single visit to the dentist) is unlikely to be a problem for a healthy individual.

Aside from its psychopharmacological actions, nitrous oxide has one other (known) significant metabolic action: it interacts with vitamin B12. This was first reported in an in vitro study in 1968, but didn't really receive notice from anaesthesiologists until ten years later (because medline didn't exist yet :-) ). In 1978, however, Amess et al showed that 24 h of nitrous oxide administration caused interference with DNA synthesis in humans. Since then, the interaction between nitrous oxide and B12 has been better characterized.

Basically, B12 is a bound coenzyme of methionine synthase and has a tetrapyrrole rings with a monovalent cobalt at the center. The cobalt functions as a methyl carrier in a transmethylation reaction. Nitrous oxide converts the cobalt from the monovalent form to the bivalent form. As a result, methionine synthase activity is inhibited. Recovery is believed to require absorption of new unoxidized B12 (and synthesis of new apoenzyme).

Humans seem to be far more resistant to complications from this than rodents. I don't have the energy to go through the various published studies at this point, so I will quote from Nunn's "Clinical Aspects of the Interaction Between Nitrous Oxide and Vitamin B12" (1987), _Br. J. Anaesth._ 59: 3-13.

It seems likely that in man, in contrast to the rat, exposure of less than 30 minutes will not cause any measurable change in methionine synthase activity. In combination with a wealth of clinical experience, this suggests that there is no special hazard for short exposures to nitrous oxide. There is a variable response to exposures lasting between 30 minutes and 2 h. However, it now seems likely that exposures of more than 2 h are likely to cause intereference with hepatic methionine synthase activity. The paucity of human data makes it more difficult to say how long an exposure is required to cause significant intereference with DNA synthesis. It is likely that there will be considerable individual variation and results obtained in healthy patients cannot be extrapolated to the patient who is seriously ill. Nevertheless, it seems likely that, once methionine synthase activity is inhibited, it will remain so for days.

With respect to repeated exposures to nitrous, be aware that this effect can build up (Nunn gives "intervals of less than 3 days" as a cut-off). So, go easy on the "hippie crack," people!

Mandatory nitrous horror story: Layzer (in (1978) "Myeloneuropathy after prolonged exposure to nitrous oxide," _Lancet_ 2:1227) reports a case of 15 people who had been inhaling nitrous oxide for long periods of time and developed a condition resembling subacture combined degneration of the cord, whatever that means.

I would suggest that the following types of people in particular avoid exposure to signficant amounts of nitrous:

Pregnant women: since nitrous oxide is a known teratogen in rodents, acting by depleting folates and partially reversible by oral folinic acid, we can expect a similar syndrome in humans.

Vegans who don't take B12 supplements: although documented cases of vegans with B12 decifiencies are scarce, theories on nutrition indicate that vegans are unlikely to get as much B12 as other groups of people.

Individiduals with healing wounds, infections, or immunological disorders: I'm throwing this recommendation in based on a "better safe than sorry" policy. Short-term exposure to nitrous oxide is unlikely to be a problem, but why not play it safe?

 
To the best of our knowledge, the text on this page may be freely reproduced and distributed.
If you have any questions about this, please check out our Copyright Policy.

 

totse.com certificate signatures
 
 
About | Advertise | Bad Ideas | Community | Contact Us | Copyright Policy | Drugs | Ego | Erotica
FAQ | Fringe | Link to totse.com | Search | Society | Submissions | Technology
Hot Topics
Benzo thread
30mg of Hydrocodone
Is this possible? Mushrooms and Acid question.
Hbwr
GABA suppliment and BENZOS
Attn: BLTC Members
Tramadol and Skelaxin!
lsd and leg pains
 
Sponsored Links
 
Ads presented by the
AdBrite Ad Network

 

TSHIRT HELL T-SHIRTS