“Laughing gas”: nitrous oxide poisoning on the rise – LCI

An increasingly visible scourge. If it has been a few years since siphon cartridges for culinary use have been diverted to obtain, by inhalation, a euphoric effect, new figures published by ANSES and ANSM point to the growth of such diverted uses of nitrous oxide. .

In detail, 134 cases were reported to poison control centers in 2020 against 46 in 2019, while 254 reports were recorded in addiction vigilance centers against 47 in 2019, said ANSES in a note published on Tuesday. after a report dated September.

The two agencies emphasize that this recreational use of “laughing gas”, also called or “proto”, mainly concerns young adults, especially students, but has also been reported more recently among adolescents (high school and college students). Among the 134 people exposed to nitrous oxide, the median age was 20 years (mean

at age 21); 44% of the cases were between 20 and 25 years old and 19.4% of the cases were minor, the age of the concerned ranging from 13 to 42 years.

If during the year 2020, the number of reported cases increased significantly, no cases were

reported in March, corresponding to the start of the first confinement, due to the Covid-19 epidemic. On the other hand, the analysis of the cases according to the periods of confinement and deconfinement in 2020 shows that the maximum number of cases was reported on leaving the first confinement, i.e. after May 11, and until the day before the second. confinement.

When it was informed, only in 70% of cases, the type of nitrous oxide consumed was for half of the cases nitrous oxide obtained from cartridges for food use, available over the counter, and inhaled via balloons. , further specifies the report.

Inhalation via a very large capacity cylinder (containing the equivalent of a hundred cartridges), represented 20% of consumption methods. However, whatever the latter, such misuse is not without risk, these intoxications being accompanied by the onset of persistent neurological symptoms and severe damage to the spinal cord, in particular among regular consumers, still alert. the agencies.

As a reminder, nitrous oxide is a gas, used for medical purposes in analgesia and in anesthesia, subject to drug regulations. It is also used in industry as an oxidizer and in consumer products as a compression gas. In this context, it is subject to European regulations on food additives and processing aids. It can then be over-the-counter in supermarkets and available on the Internet in different forms (cartridges, capsules or canisters).