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This is kind of silly. Nitrous oxide is not harmful unless there is so much of it, it displaces the air and causes suffocation, or it is abused in such quantity

This is kind of silly. Nitrous oxide is not harmful unless there is so much of it, it displaces the air and causes suffocation, or it is abused in such quantity that it causes neurological issues like persistent numbness. They should make it illegal for anyone under 21 to purchase Scotchguard and the other harmful aerosols that are popular inhalents, such as air freshener, deodorant, fabric protector, hair spray, vegetable oil spray, and spray paint. Those things hurt kids. No one has died or even hurt themselves, not ever, inhaling the nitrous from whipped creme or whip creme chargers, though people have suffocated on occasion when using actual nitrous tanks.

cantSpellSober 4y ago
> No one has died or even hurt themselves, not ever, inhaling the nitrous from whipped creme Sadly, not true (though it's rare) https://www.yourerie.com/news/local-news/centre-county-coroner-releases-official-autopsy-results-of-17-year-old-cathedral-prep-student-jack-schoenig/ https://www.yourerie.com/news/local-news/centre-county-coron...
- Maursault 4y ago
  > The autopsy shows that Schoenig died from asphyxiation Something doesn't add up. When you pass out from holding your breath, you automatically start breathing again. What must have happened is there was so much nitrous being used, and not enough ventilation, and the nitrous displaced the air on the floor. So he passed out, fell down, and when he would have started breathing again normally, there was no air on the floor to breathe. No one thought to open a door to let the nitrous escape, so the CPR was in vain if there was no air to get into his lungs. Then his friends cleaned up all the empty whippets before the police arrived, and got their story straight: "he did one whippet, and just died," when there was probably hundreds of whippets being released in an enclosed space, pushing the air off the floor and creating a zone of asphyxiation. So I suspect this is precisely what I described in my post, asphyxiation from displaced air on the floor. The nitrous itself did not hurt him, it just made him pass out because there was no oxygen in his lungs when he was holding in the nitrous. What killed him was asphyxiation, not toxicity to nitrous. Decades ago, 2 kids died this way in a pickup truck. They even had the windows open, but the nitrous displaced the air along the floor, they passed out and folded over, with heads below the door-windows, and asphyxiated. More recently but still years ago, a high school boy and girl died together the same way crawling under a large advertising helium balloon to hear their voices sound funny... but there was no air under there, so they asphyxiated. The helium itself did not kill them, it is inert. The lack of air causes asphyxiation, and that is what it is fatal. So, again, nitrous itself will not hurt you, has never hurt anyone ever, but because it is heavier than air, it displaces the air, and in an enclosed space it will push out all the air, and death by asphyxiation occurs.
  - cantSpellSober 4y ago
    Yep, but "doing whippets is dangerous" is the big takeaway. I'm not sure what the answer is, but this seems like a strange move for a state that just legalized cannabis.
  - eth0up 4y ago
    The term is Inert Gas Asphyxiation, pretty much as you described. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inert_gas_asphyxiation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inert_gas_asphyxiation -- Approved by Exit International as a reasonably high quality method of permanently checking out See also the 3.19.1981 Columbia incident: https://www.wired.com/2009/03/march-19-1981-shuttle-columbias-first-fatalities/ https://www.wired.com/2009/03/march-19-1981-shuttle-columbia... Edit: to clarify that I'm not disagreeing with anything you've written nor am I attempting pedantry. Just adding a bit.
    - Maursault 4y ago
      Thanks for the links and the nomenclature. Not a bad way to go, but it's always so sad because these kinds of fatalities always seem to have been avoidable.
      - deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
    - yarg 4y ago
      There's a lake with a history of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Nyos#1986_disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Nyos#1986_disaster Apparently, it was known (or believed) by the locals to house an evil spirit.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
JediLuke 4y ago
yarg 4y ago
And that's so fucking wrong that it's dangerous. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrous_oxide#Neurotoxicity_and_neuroprotection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrous_oxide#Neurotoxicity_an...
dclusin 4y ago
NO2 interferes with the bodies ability to absorb vitamin b12. Sustained abuse of No2 even if only several times a week can cause enough of a disruption to b12 absorption that paralysis and other issues affecting motor coordination and locomotion can occurr. It is not the side effect free drug people make it out to be. H20 can also be lethal if ingested in large enough quantities. So I understand your position on the inherent silliness of the policy response. But it is harmful and statements like these minimize the risks posed by NO2.

cantSpellSober 4y ago

> No one has died or even hurt themselves, not ever, inhaling the nitrous from whipped creme Sadly, not true (though it's rare) https://www.yourerie.com/news/local-news/centre-county-coroner-releases-official-autopsy-results-of-17-year-old-cathedral-prep-student-jack-schoenig/ https://www.yourerie.com/news/local-news/centre-county-coron...

Maursault 4y ago
> The autopsy shows that Schoenig died from asphyxiation Something doesn't add up. When you pass out from holding your breath, you automatically start breathing again. What must have happened is there was so much nitrous being used, and not enough ventilation, and the nitrous displaced the air on the floor. So he passed out, fell down, and when he would have started breathing again normally, there was no air on the floor to breathe. No one thought to open a door to let the nitrous escape, so the CPR was in vain if there was no air to get into his lungs. Then his friends cleaned up all the empty whippets before the police arrived, and got their story straight: "he did one whippet, and just died," when there was probably hundreds of whippets being released in an enclosed space, pushing the air off the floor and creating a zone of asphyxiation. So I suspect this is precisely what I described in my post, asphyxiation from displaced air on the floor. The nitrous itself did not hurt him, it just made him pass out because there was no oxygen in his lungs when he was holding in the nitrous. What killed him was asphyxiation, not toxicity to nitrous. Decades ago, 2 kids died this way in a pickup truck. They even had the windows open, but the nitrous displaced the air along the floor, they passed out and folded over, with heads below the door-windows, and asphyxiated. More recently but still years ago, a high school boy and girl died together the same way crawling under a large advertising helium balloon to hear their voices sound funny... but there was no air under there, so they asphyxiated. The helium itself did not kill them, it is inert. The lack of air causes asphyxiation, and that is what it is fatal. So, again, nitrous itself will not hurt you, has never hurt anyone ever, but because it is heavier than air, it displaces the air, and in an enclosed space it will push out all the air, and death by asphyxiation occurs.
- cantSpellSober 4y ago
  Yep, but "doing whippets is dangerous" is the big takeaway. I'm not sure what the answer is, but this seems like a strange move for a state that just legalized cannabis.
- eth0up 4y ago
  The term is Inert Gas Asphyxiation, pretty much as you described. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inert_gas_asphyxiation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inert_gas_asphyxiation -- Approved by Exit International as a reasonably high quality method of permanently checking out See also the 3.19.1981 Columbia incident: https://www.wired.com/2009/03/march-19-1981-shuttle-columbias-first-fatalities/ https://www.wired.com/2009/03/march-19-1981-shuttle-columbia... Edit: to clarify that I'm not disagreeing with anything you've written nor am I attempting pedantry. Just adding a bit.
  - Maursault 4y ago
    Thanks for the links and the nomenclature. Not a bad way to go, but it's always so sad because these kinds of fatalities always seem to have been avoidable.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
  - yarg 4y ago
    There's a lake with a history of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Nyos#1986_disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Nyos#1986_disaster Apparently, it was known (or believed) by the locals to house an evil spirit.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

JediLuke 4y ago

yarg 4y ago

And that's so fucking wrong that it's dangerous. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrous_oxide#Neurotoxicity_and_neuroprotection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrous_oxide#Neurotoxicity_an...

dclusin 4y ago

NO2 interferes with the bodies ability to absorb vitamin b12. Sustained abuse of No2 even if only several times a week can cause enough of a disruption to b12 absorption that paralysis and other issues affecting motor coordination and locomotion can occurr. It is not the side effect free drug people make it out to be. H20 can also be lethal if ingested in large enough quantities. So I understand your position on the inherent silliness of the policy response. But it is harmful and statements like these minimize the risks posed by NO2.