‘just call them Nangs’

Mixed media Series

This packaging doesn’t exist, but maybe it should?

Every now and then you’ll see these discarded cream chargers/nitrous oxide bulbs scattered on the ground; they are not there because someone has finished aerating cream, they are there because someone has inhaled the gas inside to get a very temporary high.

At about 8am one morning I was going for a walk in Docklands (Melbourne city) people were walking to work or going for their morning stroll. Sitting in a public seating area along the walkway was a young woman (she must have been about 23); you could have mistaken her for a shop assistant having a break. There she was, all by herself, with an inflated balloon in her mouth and a cream syphon in her other hand, sucking in the gas she had just injected into the balloon; next to her was a box of 50 bulbs!

The next day I went back to the spot and the box of 50 ‘now used’ bulbs were still there; she had used all 50 of the nitrous oxide chargers. I was astonished, if only she knew the danger and risk she was taking?! The box of 50 bulbs was marked “Cream Chargers – 50 cream chargers”.

I don’t mind if someone wants to use nitrous oxide, but they should use it with the full understanding of what they are taking with the complete health implications associated with N2O. If we sell tobacco with all the warnings, why not nitrous oxide?

I think because N2O chargers are associated with/and sold as, a food product, we automatically presume it must be OK. But when it’s sold as a food product it’s used in a cream syphon to aerate cream, it’s only a small amount of N2O that is used in the cream and eaten. It’s not sold to inhale the whole contents of the bulb at once.

These bulbs can be bought online in extraordinary quantities – you can literally buy thousands of bulbs – or even worse you can buy 3.3L chargers that clearly can’t be used with a normal cream syphon.

I’ve talked to a couple of people about using nitrous oxide and most only use one or two to get a brief high when they are at a party or festival. One person told me that they knew a friend who was pregnant, and she thought that cream bulb gas was the only safe drug option she had while she was pregnant. It’s probably one of the worse options she could use because it can cause birth defects.

The other big concern with N2O is it shouldn’t be used with other drugs, but it evidently always is. It shouldn’t be used near an open flame like a cigarette. You shouldn’t use it while standing because you may lose your balance. It should never be used directly from the cream syphon because it’s a gas under extreme pressure so it can cause your mouth, tongue, lips, vocal cords and/or lung tissue to get frostbite. Worst of all, if used in large quantities, it can stop your body from absorbing vitamin B12 which can cause permanent brain and spinal cord damage.

My Nang series was originally going to comment on the chargers thrown on the ground in the street, but after investigating this subject I found it was so much more than just bulbs thrown on the ground.

Maybe that young woman in Docklands wouldn’t have used the nitrous oxide chargers by herself or inhaled quite so much if the packaging was clearly marked with the appropriate warning signs for someone who intends to inhale the N2O, not as it is sold at the moment as cream chargers.