Rhiannon wrote:
are you really asking about nitrogen dioxide (no2) though - that's what I assumed you were interested in, rather than nitrous oxide (n2o). Though I guess they're both pollutants.
Or are you talking about NOx ie nitrogen oxide NO and nitrogen dioxide NO2.
got to be specific with chemical names haven't you.
Definitely nitrous oxide (N2O) we're talking about Rhiannon. The others are also pollutants as you point out, but they don't tend to be consumed recreationally by heads.
Having said that, and thought about it a bit more, I'm not sure that's really a big issue. As Merrick points out, the 'greenhouse' effect of N2O is almost 300 times worse than CO2.
But:
(a) the amount consumed recreationally, compared to the amount of CO2 produced, must be damn near negligible (even taking the 300x multiplier into account).
(b) the N2O that gets inhaled won't be expelled to atmosphere as N2O. I haven't checked out what does get expelled, but the fact that you get high off the stuff implies that a chemical reaction has taken place, almost certainly resulting in the N2O being converted to something else.
Which isn't to say that releasing N2O into the atmosphere is a good idea. Merely that we should probably minimse the energy we spend campaigning against munters and their N2O balloons, so long as global industry is still boiling the planet alive.
