JAMA: ‘Laughing Gas' Abuse Fatally Climbing Among US Youth

Monday, August 04, 2025

JAMA informs: "Teenagers and children across America are increasingly inhaling nitrous oxide, better known as "laughing gas" or "whippets" to get high. Inhaling nitrous oxide comes with serious health risks: Blood clots, frostbite, asphyxiation, heart palpitations, hallucinations and even paralysis, brain damage, or death. Sold in canisters, easy access appears to be growing throughout the US. There are no age restrictions on buying nitrous oxide which is available online and in gas stations across the country. US deaths linked to misuse of the common, legal inhalant climbed nearly sevenfold -- 578% -- between 2010 and 2023. In 2023, 156 Americans, many of them children, died from huffing nitrous oxide. Eighth-graders make up a large proportion of users."

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Many nitrous oxide products come in flavors that are especially enticing to children or teenagers, like berry or cotton candy and often come with flavored nozzles. The research focused on 14 years of US CDC 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. The US FDA issued a warning earlier this year, listing 15 nitrous oxide products with names like Baking Bad, Cloud 9ine, Cosmic Gas, and Whip-It! Canada has seen incidents of nitrous oxide abuse rise and similarly issued a warning this year. Links: FDA.gov; Canada recall.

https://cdnph.upi.com/svc/sv/i/6551754163724/2025/1/17541645882946/Fatal-risks-from-laughing-gas-use-climb-among-youth.jpg

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