Nitrous Oxide

[Spindles]

..and yet the picture on the box just says "take me"

I don't particularly like n2o, on the basis of it being classed with glue/gas/solvent sniffing in my mind. Last year it was MUCH more prevalent than this year and it wasn't quite the sea of whippets we 'enjoyed' walking on last year thankfully.

I camp in undleground and on monday mornings when green crew are moving out the tatters start moving in, last year some really nasty ass lads arrived and were huffing nitrous like nobodies business and the more they did, the more aggressive they became (not something I associate with having a good time) until eventually they were battering each other and the fight spilled into our area. This kind of person, this kind of behaviour only helps to reinforce my negative viewpoint.

[nightcrawler13]

..and yet the picture on the box just says "take me"

I don't particularly like n2o, on the basis of it being classed with glue/gas/solvent sniffing in my mind. Last year it was MUCH more prevalent than this year and it wasn't quite the sea of whippets we 'enjoyed' walking on last year thankfully.

I camp in undleground and on monday mornings when green crew are moving out the tatters start moving in, last year some really nasty ass lads arrived and were huffing nitrous like nobodies business and the more they did, the more aggressive they became (not something I associate with having a good time) until eventually they were battering each other and the fight spilled into our area. This kind of person, this kind of behaviour only helps to reinforce my negative viewpoint.

[TokiDoki]

Wow it's a lot worse for the atmosphere than one would assume.

I hate how you see the metal containers everywhere, why don't people clean up after themselves.

Never tried it myself but I don't like the sound of it as the high I believe comes from a lack of oxygen to the brain?

[Ed209]

Hippy crack

[srvman]

OK can't find the original article that I was looking for but have tried to recreate it below with references to validate the calculations...

When you inhale N₂O it is minimally metabolised therefore virtually all of the gas you inhale is exhaled. Nitrous oxide is a particularly nasty greenhouse gas, with 275-300 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide (reference - United Nations Environment Programme), note the particularly long atmospheric lifespan, any N₂O added to the atmosphere now will be there for around 114 years, compare this to 12 years for Methane and several months for CO₂.

N₂O chargers are freely available, I've calculated everything below based upon a standard box of 24 chargers...

Assuming each charger contains 8 grams of N₂O, this means a box of 24 contains 192g of N₂O (24 x 8g), and because it isn't metabolised, virtually all of it is released in to the atmosphere. So, using just one box of chargers adds the equivalent of 52.8kg of CO₂ to the atmosphere (192g x 275 - N₂O is at least 275 times more atmospherically damaging than CO₂).

So to put this in to perspective, 52.8kg of CO₂ is the equivalent of...

~52 kWh of electricity generated from coal fired power station

About a third of the UK energy requirement is provided by coal-fired power stations, which are the most polluting kind in use in the world today. To generate a single kWh of electricity about 1kg of CO₂ is released in to the atmosphere (reference - UK Parliament). Therefore, the 52.8kg of CO₂ equivalent from the box of N₂O chargers is around 52kWh of electricity. That's the equivalent of boiling over 430 litres of water with a really inefficient kettle (reference - Which?). If your energy is being generated from a more carbon efficient source then it could be two to three times that amount of energy!

Driving 280 miles in my car

I've got a reasonably economical car, which emits 119g CO₂/km. This means that I can do the entire round trip from my village in Northants to Glastonbury emitting less than the 52.8kg CO₂ from one box of chargers.

...So just one charger of 8g is the equivalent of boiling 18 kettles or driving 11.5 miles.

[Spindles]

i've sold nitrous to thousands of people in the last 3 year, not one has got violent

they must have just been dicks

[puppetmode]

I always presumed that it had the same effects as poppers? Is this the case? And if so would it not just be better to take that?

[nightcrawler13]

Yeah, I'm not saying it caused that behaviour, I'm saying that it attracted that sort of person and this has led to a negative association for me.

I would be a hypocrite to complain about substance abuse, however I have observed that a certain type of person is attracted to certain substances, take stella for example, I'm sure lots of people have an association there with a certain type of person.

I am sure that there are people I'd get on just fine with who enjoy a bit of nos, however it's not for me personally (just trying to get across that I am not generalising)

[Spindles]

To be fair, you should see some of the people at my local iceland

[Lucanesque]

I get what you are saying.

And although, this will sound really bad...I couldn't give a monkeys nut about the effects on the environment, I am more concerned as to how it will effect me. Sure, Cows give off a lot of f**king methane, that helps deplete the "Ozone". Should Eavis stop milking the cows? It is one of those things that is going to happen either way, the world wont be destroyed by greenhouse gasses or ozone layer shite, it will be a war or a natural event such as a meteor/astroid(not sure which one is the right one) colliding with us.

To be honest, after reading this I am seriously considering selling at next years fest.

Edited July 3, 2010 by Happy Chappy

[catsta]

Waste of money!

[Jailbreak]

I dont have a problem with people doing them, but I was on the Litter picking team, so do have a problem with having to pick up thousands of small metal canisters and pieces of ballon from the grass, that wasnt fun!

[APC]

I always presumed that it had the same effects as poppers? Is this the case? And if so would it not just be better to take that?

[HandFedFred]

It is possible to rig up a muffler on the dispenser. I like to think I annoyed relatively few people with the noise. I also made sure I picked up the canisters and put them into the proper recycling bin.

[Redwinevino]

If you get caught taking in the "thing" they use to charge them what will happen, sorry hopefully someone will know what I mean. Im hungover and once again words are my enemy

[tilt]

^^^ It'll be confiscated.

[APC]

I imagine, as the dispenser is not illegal to own, that they will just take it off you and let you enter still. Although having said that, a quick browse on Wikipedia says this:

"Nitrous oxide is entirely legal to possess and inhale in the United Kingdom, although supplying it to others to inhale, especially minors, is more likely to end up with a prosecution under the Medicines Act"

Make of that what you will. If you get caught selling them then you will definitely lose the dispenser and your entire stock.

[Lucanesque]

I imagine, as the dispenser is not illegal to own, that they will just take it off you and let you enter still. Although having said that, a quick browse on Wikipedia says this:

"Nitrous oxide is entirely legal to possess and inhale in the United Kingdom, although supplying it to others to inhale, especially minors, is more likely to end up with a prosecution under the Medicines Act"

Make of that what you will. If you get caught selling them then you will definitely lose the dispenser and your entire stock.

[Nyika]

You can really trip on nos if you inhale and exhale until you can't do it any more, it's kind of scary in an addictive way. If you aren't stuck in your head hearing a noise repeating itself and feeling like your head is going round and round lots, you're doing it wrong.

[Lucanesque]

You can really trip on nos if you inhale and exhale until you can't do it any more, it's kind of scary in an addictive way. If you aren't stuck in your head hearing a noise repeating itself and feeling like your head is going round and round lots, you're doing it wrong.

[nellie72]

ok so if i wanted to take, say 1000 of these 'whippets' in to the festival next year, would the nazi security guards have any right t5o confiscate then from me?

Edit: didnt see previous posts

Edited July 4, 2010 by nellie72

[surfgurl]

they banned NOS at the Sunrise festival this year partly on environmental grounds - all those little cannisters are a bugger to clear up - though i understand they have a considerable scrap value - 50p each, I heard.

Sunrise is quite a family friendly festival and several hundred people lurching around uncontrolably wasn't considered too socially responsible.

At Sunrise the security were searching for Glass and NOS exclusively.

If Glastonbury wanted to ban them, they could. Its up to the festy organisers

[fur_q]

ok so if i wanted to take, say 1000 of these 'whippets' in to the festival next year, would the nazi security guards have any right t5o confiscate then from me?

Edit: didnt see previous posts

[tilt]

If you aren't stuck in your head hearing a noise repeating itself and feeling like your head is going round and round lots, you're doing it wrong.