Good day to you, great Steemians, thanks for the support given to me through your upvote, comments and for always reading my posts. It's another great time being here again

My discussion today will be on Nitrous oxide gas, always referred to as laughing gas. Does this gas actually cause someone to laugh? If yes, how does this gas go about this? These are possible questions someone who here about the gas for the very first time could ask.

By ©1914 Keystone Studios

I could remember an incident that occurred during my first year in college. It happened that a quiz competition was organized for the new intakes which I was one of them. The quiz was a yearly program to test new students about their knowledge of chemistry. one of the questions I was asked is to explain what a laughing gas is and also to mention the name of the compound. Since I have never heard of the gas before, I paused for a bit to think about the answer, what I did was to give the literal meaning to the question. I said laughing gas is a gas that laughs every time at everywhere, everyone in the auditorium busted into laughter, the coordinator of the competition added a comment that for the gas to be laughing, then it must possess a mouth. People then busted into laughter the more.

This prompted me to go back home and search my chemistry textbook from beginning to the end looking for laughing gas but I couldn’t find it until I asked my chemistry teacher and He told me that laughing gas is a compound of nitrogen. Then I went home again to look for it and I found it.

Firstly, we must understand that laughter has so many health benefits to human. Some scientists even believe that it takes 17 muscles to laugh and look handsome or beautiful while it takes 43 muscles to frown and look ugly. Therefore it is better to make use of a small number of muscle to look handsome or beautiful rather than stressing the whole 43 muscles and still look ugly. Laughter relaxes the whole body, protects the heart, burns body calories, boosts the immune system, and triggers the release of endorphins, Just to mention but few of the health benefits of laughter.

As I have said earlier, Nitrous oxide is commonly referred to as laughing gas and N₂O is its chemical formula but its IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) name is dinitrogen monoxide. Many of the properties of the gas are; at room temperature, it is a colorless gas and non- flammable, it is a powerful oxidizer at elevated temperature and it has a smell and taste of metal. As a result of its euphoric effect after inhaling it, Humphry Davy then gave it the name laughing gas. But the gas was discovered by a scientist and a priest called Joseph Priestley in 1793. From the equation of reaction shown below, N₂O can be synthesized through the process of heating ammonium nitrate in the presence of iron filings to produce nitric oxide (NO) which is then passed through water in order to have nitrous oxide (N₂O).

2NO + H₂O + Fe → N₂O + Fe(OH)₂

Public Domain,

As for the question I asked earlier whether the gas actually makes someone laugh. Here is the answer. The release of dopamine in the body is being triggered by N₂O. Dopamine which is synthesized in the brain and kidney is an organic compound that is made up of catecholamine and phenethylamine family. It is a neurotransmitter which helps in our body reward system. That is, it rewards our body upon our engagement in a specific action. Shortage or too much of this chemical could be harmful to the body. Therefore it is needed by the body in the right quantity. Diseases like Parkinson’s is being caused by low dopamine production in the body and too much of it results in euphoria. At the euphoric stage, people start laughing because they usually feel excited and happy.

It doesn’t take time to feel the effect of the gas after inhalation just because the gas doesn’t undergo metabolism when inhaled. Nitrous oxide enters through alveoli into the bloodstream by diffusion when inhaled. Due to the fact that it is fat soluble, it doesn’t bind with haemoglobin. So, it is transported immediately into the cells. Our body doesn’t metabolize N₂O due to its stability and therefore the molecule works the way it is. Once its inhalation stops, it takes almost 2minutes to offset it out of the lung through diffusion.

Apart from the recreational uses of laughing gas, it is also used as an anesthetic and analgesic agent for a long time in the medical field. It is suspected that our body does increase the production of opiate molecules, thereby working as an analgesic (painkiller).

Nitrous Oxide Occurrence in the Atmosphere

Human produced nitrous oxide is mainly through agriculture. Various Agricultural activities that lead to the production of nitrous oxide include; Nitrogen fertilizer usage, handling of animal waste can stimulate nitrous oxide production through naturally occurred bacteria and soil cultivation. Through bacteria and oceans, nitrous oxide is naturally emitted into the atmosphere. 65 percent of human-related nitrous oxide is being produced by livestock such as chickens, pig, and cow. 20 percent of nitrous oxide is being produced from industrial sources which include; nitric acid and nylon production and combustion of fossil fuel in internal combustion engines.

In recent time, it was discovered that nitrous oxide also has the same effect on the atmosphere as CFCs in the sense that it eats up the stratosphere the same way CFCs does.

By Ben Mills - Own work, Public Domain, Space-filling model of nitrous oxide, N2O

---

Safety Measure and precautions

---

Recently, it is believed that N₂O could be harmful. It is being suspected of causing paralysis as a result of its anesthetic effects and it has been proofed of being neurotoxic. Risk of hypoxia is a result of inhalation of N₂O. Hypoxia occurs when the brain lacks sufficient oxygen. Exposure to the pure gas for like 10 minutes continuously without being mixed with oxygen could result into fatal consequences such as a heart attack, fainting and blood pressure reduction. The decline in mental performance and audiovisual ability is caused by nitrous oxide. Temporal disorientation and induced spatial coupled with the aforementioned effects could lead to physical harm upon environmental exposure to nitrous oxide.

Also, vitamin B12 deficiency could be experienced by long-term exposure to nitrous oxide. The cobalamin form of vitamin B12 is being deactivated by the inhalation of nitrous oxide through oxidation. The following are the symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency which could be experienced within days or week of exposure; myelopathy, sensory neuropathy and encephalopathy.

Recovery from the symptoms could be slow and incomplete but high doses of vitamin B12 could be used for the treatment of the symptoms. The effect of exposure to nitrous oxide could be insignificant if the person that was exposed has a high level of vitamin B12 stored in his/her body. Therefore, it is advisable to check the level of vitamin B12 in the body before being exposed to nitrous oxide in order to avoid the aforementioned symptoms which someone might not be able to recover from easily.

According to several researchers using rat as a case study, it was discovered that exposure of any pregnant species to nitrous oxide is detrimental to the fetus in the womb.

Conclusion

Nitrous oxide known as laughing gas is just known by many people but its importance is not known. Many of its uses are not mentioned here apart from its recreational and medical use. Even with its importance, it is a very dangerous gas that if exposed to too much could lead to heart attack, fainting and low blood pressure. Therefore the aforementioned safety measure must be considered before being exposed to the gas.

---

Reference

---

1. https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/2320/how-does-laughing-gas-n%E2%82%82o-work
2. https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=7653.0
3. https://www.scienceabc.com/eyeopeners/laughing-gas-actually-make-laugh.html
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrous_oxide
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine
6. http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Nitrous_oxide