Nitrous oxide has been around since the Middle Ages. But for three years, this product has been diverted, throughout France. It even takes second or third place on the podium, just after cannabis. Today, this substance is increasingly popular with young people and is consumed more and more regularly.
Normally, this famous gas, contained in large cylinders, is intended for industrial use, which is used to propel the whipped cream. Today, this gas is emptied into balloons and then inhaled pure.
According to doctors who have collected the words of consumers in hospitals, there is even a whole business with home deliveries, as for cocaine.
Like tobacco or drugs, the consumption of nitrous oxide can therefore turn into an addiction and be very difficult for young people to stop. This product has addictive properties.
Today, during recreational use, young people can consume up to the equivalent of 80 balloons. The effect of this gas is very fast, and fades very quickly.
Regular use is harmful to health
“The very act of inhaling this gas, a gas that is pure and oxygen-free, several times causes faintness, dizziness, and nausea. If the intakes are close together, the user may have heart problems, because the heart does not like to be deprived of oxygen.“, analyzes Professor Joëlle Micallef, director of CEIP-Addictovigilance Paca Corse and president of the French Addictovigilance Network.
After interviewing consumers, doctors explain that young people are unaware of the danger of this product, which can be as harmful as alcohol or hard drugs.
Long-term sequelae
“We have seen 20-year-old kids who have consumed nitrous oxide for less than six months have neurological disorders, which corresponds to walking disorders, a kind of tingling in the legs” noted Professor Joëlle Micallef.
“These anomalies are far from trivial. There is an interaction of nitrous oxide with vitamin B12. This vitamin serves, in a caricatural way, that our nerves of the legs, the arms, the hands, function in an optimal way. With nitrous oxide, this vitamin works much less“, she adds.
The main treatment for these disorders is to stop the consumption of nitrous oxide. Doctors warn that it is important not to consume vitamin B12 for prevention, it is useless.
New element: blood clot formation
“We have found that the consumption of nitrous oxide can lead to the formation of clots in the blood and cause phlebitis, but also pulmonary embolism which is normally the prerogative of the elderly or sick“, certifies Professor Joëlle Micallef.
Doctors remind parents that there is, however, no risk for their children or adolescents when nitrous oxide is administered under medical supervision, to put a patient to sleep after a broken arm, for example. Unlike recreational use, nitrous oxide is 50% mixed with oxygen.