From Fruit Punch to Brain Damage: The Party Gas That’s Killing Americans
Deaths from laughing gas misuse are skyrocketing, despite growing warnings from health officials.
Researchers are uncovering the dangerous rise in recreational use of nitrous oxide, a substance once considered relatively harmless. With its colorful, candy-like packaging and widespread online availability, it’s becoming disturbingly easy for young people to get high off a gas that can cause paralysis, brain damage—or worse. Social media is adding fuel to the fire, and experts say unless regulation steps in, the problem could spiral fast.
Rising Deaths Linked to Laughing Gas Misuse
Deaths from nitrous oxide misuse are rising in the United States, even after a recent warning from the Food and Drug Administration about its dangers. Commonly known as laughing gas, nitrous oxide is often used as a sedative or anesthetic, but it’s increasingly being used recreationally.
Researchers Andrew Yockey, a public health assistant professor at the University of Mississippi, and Rachel Hoopsick, an assistant professor of health and kinesiology at the University of Illinois, are studying this troubling trend.
“This is a chemical that is commonly used as a sedative or anesthetic, but what we’re seeing is a rise in recreational use,” Yockey said. “But what we’re also seeing is also a rise in hospitalizations, in poisonings, and in deaths.”
Shocking Spike in Nitrous Oxide-Related Fatalities
According to the 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, over 13 million Americans have misused nitrous oxide at some point in their lives. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that deaths from nitrous oxide poisoning rose by more than 110% between 2019 and 2023.
“The preliminary findings of our study are that deaths have remained fairly small compared to other dangerous substances,” Hoopsick said. “But what we’re seeing is that over the last couple of years, those rates have increased exponentially.
“At that continued rate, we could be looking at a much larger problem.”
A Deadly High: Long-Term Risks of Whippets
People have misused nitrous oxide – also called whippets – for decades to get a fleeting high, but the long-term effects of misusing the gas are potentially deadly. The FDA recently warned consumers that repeatedly inhaling it could lead to asphyxiation, blood clots, frostbite, numbness, paralysis, and brain damage, among many other side effects.
Unlike many misused substances, nitrous oxide is unregulated. An online search for it yields a plethora of results, with various flavors and all in bright, eye-catching colors.
Marketing Tactics Mimic Big Tobacco’s Playbook
“Think back to big tobacco; they deliberately targeted young people with cartoons, fun flavors and flashy colors,” Hoopsick said. “That is a parallel we’re seeing now with nitrous oxide.”
The gas is often marketed as a culinary ingredient to turn cream into whipped cream. The FDA warns that consumers can purchase nitrous oxide through online retail sites and many smoke and vape shops across the nation without issue.
“I really doubt anyone is buying flavored nitrous oxide to make blueberry mango whipped cream,” Yockey said, reading one of the flavors listed on Amazon. “Or ‘Bomb Pop.’ But I can have it delivered to my house in a couple of days.”
Lack of Warnings and Normalization of Abuse
Also similar to the tobacco industry’s tactics for pulling in consumers, nitrous oxide sellers minimize the potential danger of abusing the product, Hoopsick said.
“We have evidence that nitrous oxide poisoning is a very real danger, but this is very often ignored or trivialized,” she said. “Sellers of nitrous oxide rarely, if ever, provide health warnings. I think the public sees it as a party drug.”
Social Media Fuels Dangerous Trends
Hoopsick and Yockey are also investigating the role of social media in influencing young adults to use nitrous oxide. Videos of teens and young adults inhaling the chemical are easily found across social platforms.
“We know that if you watch videos of someone else doing it, you’re more likely to try it,” Yockey said. “I worry about the high school and college-aged adolescents who see this online and decide to buy a fruit-punch flavored tank. Because right now, that’s perfectly legal.”
Call for Regulation and Policy Action
More research is needed to track the full scope of nitrous oxide misuse, but regulation must also catch up to prevent further harm, the researchers said.
“Policy-level interventions are what is lacking at the moment,” Hoopsick said. “If we have some guardrails on who can sell this, who can buy it, and how it’s marketed, maybe we can get ahead of the problem.”
Until then, the availability of nitrous oxide continues to grow.
“Some of these brands were not here even a week ago,” Yockey said, scrolling through listings on his computer. With expedited delivery, any one of them could be on one’s doorstep by the end of the week.
“What they’re doing here is very ingenious, but it’s also incredibly dangerous,” he said.
Reference: “Addressing the unregulated use of nitrous oxide canisters” by R. Andrew Yockey, 29 March 2025, Journal of Medicine, Surgery, and Public Health.