A new dangerous trend: Galaxy Gas | Expert Opinion
Nitrous oxide dates back to the 1840s and has been misused for its euphoric properties since early days, but it's seeing renewed interest on social media. The dangers are real, though.
Yet another new and dangerous trend has surfaced online: a new spin on an old anesthetic, nitrous oxide. It’s called Galaxy Gas, and videos are popping up all over social media of youths experimenting with its effects. Nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, has long been misused recreationally. But social media is amplifying the practice.
Videos on TikTok and across social media show mostly teenagers inhaling the gas and recording its effects. Inhaling nitrous oxide can cause immediate and short-term euphoria, happiness, giggling, and relaxation. But using nitrous oxide improperly comes with side effects, including dizziness, dissociation, disorientation, blurry vision, weakness, numbness, nausea, headache, vomiting, and impaired memory. The impairment users suffer has led to falls, crashes, and even deaths.
The sub-zero pressurized gas from the nozzle can cause frost burns in the mouth, vocal cords, and lungs. Chronic use of nitrous oxide use may lead to vitamin B12 deficiency, ultimately causing a type of low blood cell count that may progress to nerve damage.
What’s much worse, inhaling the gas can suffocate and kill users because of how it decreases oxygen levels in the body. Lack of oxygen can also cause seizures, abnormal heart rhythms, or cardiac arrest. Nitrous oxide, in use since the 1840s, has been most often used as an anesthetic for procedures requiring light sedation, such as dental work and minor surgeries. It came to be known as “laughing gas” after an early researcher observed its euphoric effects in social gatherings and British high-society parties.
It is also used in the culinary industry as a propellant and preservative for products like canned whipped cream. This product is favored by many teen abusers of nitrous oxide.
The term Galaxy Gas originally came from a brand that sold colorful canisters of nitrous oxide with fruity flavors such as “watermelon lemonade” and “strawberry cream.” They were marketed for culinary use but were sold at smoke shops and online, within easy reach of teens. The Atlanta-based company has paused all sales of its nitrous oxide canisters. Its website now only sells pressure regulators and dispensers; however, the dispensers still contain nitrous oxide that can be inhaled.
TikTok has tried to limit content with nitrous oxide misuse. if you search for “Galaxy Gas” you get a pop-up message urging you to learn more “about how drugs, alcohol, and tobacco can affect your mind, body, and behavior.” Videos showing illicit nitrous oxide use are taken down; but more crop up all the time, it seems.
So, how do we keep our teens safe? Difficult as it is for parents to keep up with all the new dangers kids can encounter, it’s important to stay informed and alert as to what your teen is seeing and doing. So talk to your child as openly as you can. If you believe your child is engaging in illegal substances, please take them to a health-care professional for help.
Samantha Neumann is a pediatric resident and Hayley Goldner is a pediatrician in the adolescent medicine department at Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware.