Woman's Hour - Parenting: Nitrous Oxide

Episode Date: May 23, 2019

What do you know about Nitrous Oxide? The Royal College of Nursing says the public need to be made aware of its dangers. It was made illegal to sell it for psychoactive purposes three years ago, but the Home Office estimates that in the last year, half a million 16 to 24 year olds in England and Wales used it. Laughing gas or ‘Noz,’ is particularly popular during the music festival season. Jane speaks to Catherine Gamble, Royal College of Nursing Professional Lead for Mental Health Nursing.

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BBC Sounds. Music, radio, podcasts. Hi, this is Jane Garvey and welcome to the Women's App Parenting Podcast. This week, what you need to know about laughing gas, NOZ, or nitrous oxide, to give it its official name. The Royal College of Nursing says the public don't know enough about its dangers and as we head towards the music festival season over the summer, it's probably something you do need to know more about particularly if you've got teenagers. Now it was made illegal to sell the substance for psychoactive purposes three years ago but the Home Office estimates

that in the last year half a million 16 to 24 year olds in England and Wales have used it. I talked to Catherine Gamble the Royal College of Nursing's professional lead for mental health nursing. Well, it was the Psychoactive Substance Act in 2016, actually, when the former chief prosecutor said that there needed to be a new law and as previously it had failed to stop the supply and what was described as the product as a death in a box. And so they have now made it, the law actually outlines that it's illegal to supply the drug, well, I'm calling it a drug, to supply for psychoactive effect it isn't illegal to buy it for other purposes for example to make it into the whipping cream canisters yeah and hence the problem we have and hence the reality

which is that 500,000 teenagers and people in their early 20s in England and Wales have used it in the last year so this stuff is still out there, still being consumed. Yes, and why we're wanting to debate it today at the Congress is in relation to the fact that we believe there's a real need for a public awareness campaign on the dangers of nitrous oxide, particularly as you have highlighted at the beginning of the festival seasons. People are finishing exams, those young people will be going to proms and wouldn't it be funny to have some laughing gas because it's so readily available and incredibly cheap. It is the same stuff is it that you might have got at the dentist or you might routinely be

offered in childbirth? Yes yes yes but it's different in relation to the fact that this is in tiny small silver canisters. For those of you who are going to festivals or will have been in the last few years, actually, apart from plastic bottles, that is the biggest litter that you will find, these silver canisters all over fields where they have been discarded by people who have used them. So what are its adverse effects? Well this is what the sort of young people don't realise that if you inhale it via the canister particularly if you're in a in closed space it can actually suffocate you because it immediately fills your lungs with no oxygen

and it can cause throat spasms. Over a longer period of times of using it, it reduces your vitamin B uptake so you can cause severe anemia. People start to describe tingling in their fingers and their toes and it causes changes in their fingers and their toes. And it causes changes in their thinking.

And they can also, we know that immune systems are affected and people's thinkings and brain function are particularly affected. But people don't recognise it as being that. And that's what we're really concerned about. And is it addictive? Well, that's a bit of a question mark but it is um uh it's the effects are addictive it's great to feel this euphoria um uh so that's what people like they like the the sort of sound distortions they like the mini hallucinations they like the fact that that it's giggly, but you can then induce paranoia. How would you know if your child had taken it, apart from finding the

canisters? Yes, apart from that. Now, this is something that you do need to have an opportunity to be quite observant. It might be that they start talking about hilarious, recalling hilarious stories that that you know mate such and such did this hilarious thing and you might want to think oh hang on what's what's uh you know put your antennae out a bit you might also notice that signs of burning and and um around the mouth and nose um because uh as you know that if you light one of these canisters it can you know it's a very freezing effect so it can actually burn your skin. People may well be starting to buy balloons, and you might not think very much about it,

but that's the way that actually some people will be using it. They fill the balloons and then inhale from the balloon. And if a child is asthmatic or has some sort of breathing condition, is it more dangerous potentially? Yeah, of course. So you should really be watchful and i mean the problem is as you know i'm sure if you've got teenagers they don't listen or they don't want to hear the message from you so what do parents do particularly as you say ahead of events like for example the reading festival well this is why we're calling for this public awareness i think there is something around being very very clear with and doing some health promotion advice as parents to say this is you know what you need to do to do it safely. There's some nice websites

Frank the website does a very nice explaining explanation of what signs to look for and actually what to do. We know that they can, you know, so that's really those are the principles. And is it really something that parents need to be alarmed about? Because we're not talking here about, well, for example, substances that we have discussed on the program ketamine and crack cocaine um no it isn't but we do need to be very um that this is a drug and and it is dangerous because people die and um so i don't want to to we don't want to make light of this you know it's called laughing gas but it isn't a laughing matter. No, but of course, we also need to, it's been made illegal.

The legislation hasn't worked, has it? In terms of young people getting access to this stuff, it's not worked. No, it isn't. And that's why, again, the RCN are calling for a public awareness campaign to look at that in much more detail. Catherine Gamble of the Royal College of Nursing. And if there's anything you'd like us to talk about in the Women's Hour Parenting Podcast, you can contact us via the website bbc.co.uk slash Women's Hour. I'm Sarah Trelevan, and for over a year, I've been working on one of the most complex stories

I've ever covered. There was somebody out there who was faking pregnancies. I started like warning everybody. Every doula that I know. It was fake. No pregnancy. And the deeper I dig, the more questions I unearth. How long has she been doing this? What does she have to gain from this? From CBC and the BBC World Service, The Con, Caitlin's Baby. It's a long story, settle in. Available now.