Deaths among young people who inhale 'laughing gas' are soaring
It's no laughing matter: Kids and teens across America are increasingly inhaling nitrous oxide, better known as "laughing gas," to get high.
Too often, this ends in tragedy.
U.S. deaths linked to misuse of the common, legal inhalant climbed nearly sevenfold -- 578% -- between 2010 and 2023, a new report finds.
In 2023, 156 Americans, many of them children, died from huffing nitrous oxide, according to a new study.
"This is not local to one area; it's everywhere," said study co-author Andrew Yockey, assistant professor of public health at the University of Mississippi.
"And it absolutely deserves national surveillance," he added in a news release. "The numbers are still small right now, but they're growing and they're growing fast."
There are no age restrictions on buying nitrous oxide, and it "is available online and in gas stations across the country, so, these products become an easy way to get high, and the companies know that," Yockey said.
"How long do we have to wait before we consider this a problem?" he asked.
His team published its findings July 30 in JAMA Network Open.
Nitrous oxide, often referred to as "whippets," is usually sold in canisters and access appears to be growing.
"From about 2020 on, you really started to see two things: nitrous oxide products appearing in gas stations, online, etc., and then in 2023, the U.K. banned nitrous oxide," Yockey said. "I think that's when some of those products started creeping in globally."
He noted that many nitrous oxide products come in flavors that are especially enticing to kids: Berries or cotton candy, for example. Products often come with flavored nozzles.
"These flavored nozzles -- bubblegum, mango -- tell me these aren't being marketed to kids?" Yockey said.
Unsurprisingly, kids and teens are most prone to experimenting with nitrous oxide. In fact, eighth-graders make up a big proportion of users, the research showed.
However, use comes with risks: Blood clots, frostbite, asphyxiation, heart palpitations, hallucinations and even paralysis, brain damage or death, according to the study authors.
The research focused on 14 years of U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data on nitrous oxide-related deaths.
Fatalities were rare and relatively stable until about 2010, when there were 23 deaths nationwide. But after that point, death rates began to climb.
"What's especially concerning is how accessible and deceptively safe nitrous oxide seems," said study co-author Rachel Hoopsick, assistant professor of health and kinesiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
"It's legal, easy to buy and often viewed as harmless. But frequent or high-volume use can lead to serious neurological damage, psychiatric symptoms or even death."
She said researchers are particularly worried about young people experimenting without understanding the risks.
"The rise in harm calls for not only prevention," Hoopsick said in a news release, "But also stronger harm-reduction strategies."
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration did issue a warning earlier this year, highlighting the dangers of inhaling nitrous oxide.
That warning lists 15 nitrous oxide products, with names like Baking Bad, Cloud 9ine, Cosmic Gas and Whip-It!, but Yockey and Hoopsick are convinced there are dozens more.
"We started researching nitrous oxide misuse after seeing headlines about young people dying from what many believed was a harmless substance," Hoopsick said. "Around the same time, we were both hearing anecdotal reports of nitrous oxide use among students on our respective campuses. These weren't just isolated incidents; they pointed to a larger, overlooked public health issue."
Much more needs to be done to get the word out to parents and kids that "laughing gas" is far from harmless, the team said.
"Public awareness is far behind where it needs to be," Hoopsick said. "Most people -- including parents, educators and even some health care providers -- don't realize how common nitrous oxide use has become or how dangerous it can be.
"I want them to know that legal doesn't mean safe and that early, nonjudgmental conversations can make a real difference," she added.
More information
Find out more about the dangers of nitrous oxide at the Cleveland Clinic.
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