(ECNS) -- Nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas, is the latest drug fad in China's nightclubs, but doctors warn that an overdose could endanger people's lives, the Beijing News reported on Monday.
After inhaling laughing gas, people feel excited and relaxed, and even want to laugh. It can also be used together with oxygen for clinical purposes, including as an adjuvant treatment during anesthesia for oral surgery, according to Ling Jianjun, a chief physician at the Beijing Stomatological Hospital, Capital Medical University. However, overuse of laughing gas could result in suffocation, it was added.
Yang Lu, an anesthetist at the Beijing United Family Hospital, said laughing gas could be used to ease pains and calm patients down, but improper control of the density of the gas could pose health risks, including stomach, intestinal and lung injury, as well as suffocation.
Yang warned against inhaling a large amount of laughing gas over a long period of time and said women in the early stages of pregnancy should totally avoid using it.
The paper reported that online stores offered a variety of laughing gas products. A store spoken to by Beijing News also offered tools for inhaling the gas, but its owner told the paper: "However, we do not advise direct inhalation of the gas."
Previously, police had said that laughing gas might be a new type of drug, but so far no clear definition of it had been decided on.
