Nitrous Oxide

SECTION 2: Hazards identification

OSHA Emergency Overview WARNING! High pressure, oxidizing gas. Vigorously accelerates combustion. Can cause rapid suffocation. Can cause anesthetic effects. May cause dizziness and drowsiness. May cause nervous system and blood cell damage. Reproductive hazard. May cause frostbite. Self- contained breathing apparatus may be required by rescue workers. Odour: Slightly sweet.

Principle Routes of Exposure

Inhalation. Swallowing. Skin contact. Eye contact. EFFECTS OF A SINGLE (ACUTE) OVEREXPOSURE: INHALATION: May cause excitation, euphoria, dizziness, drowsiness, and incorordination, and narcosis. Exposure to concentrations of 50% and greater will produce clinical anaesthesia. High concentration may cause asphyxia and death. Lack of oxygen can cause death. SKIN CONTACT: Cryogenic burns (similar to severe frostbite) may occur as a result of the rapid evaporation of the liquefied gas. SKIN ABSORPTION: No evidence of adverse effects from available information. SWALLOWING: An unlikely route of exposure. This product is a gas at room temperature and pressure, but frostbite of the lips and mouth may result from contact with the liquid. EYE CONTACT: Cryogenic burns to the eyes may occur as a result of contact with the liquefied gas. EFFECTS OF REPEATED (CHRONIC) OVEREXPOSURE: Metabolic injury to the nervous system has resulted from frequent exposure to anaesthetic concentrations of this material. Complaints include numbness, tingling of the hands and legs, loss of feeling in fingers, poor balance, and muscular weakness. OTHER EFFECTS OF OVEREXPOSURE: Exposure to this product has produced embryofetal toxicity in laboratory animals as evidenced by reduced fetal weight, delayed ossification, and increased incidence of visceral and skeletal variations. Exposure to this product may be associated with an increased incidence of abortion in humans. Single prolonged exposure to high concentrations of this material has resulted in bone marrow injury and adverse effects on the blood.

Medical Conditions Generally Aggravated by Exposure

OVEREXPOSURE Haemostatic gases in general, and this product in particular, may suppress immunological function when administered for anaesthetic purposes. This may reduce the resistance to infection and other immuno-dependent disease processes. SIGNIFICANT LABORATORY DATA WITH POSSIBLE RELEVANCE TO HUMAN HEALTH HAZARD EVALUATION: None currently known. CARCINOGENICITY: Not listed as carcinogen by OSHA, NTP or IARC.