dyer@mit-trillian.MIT.EDU (Steve Dyer) (12/31/86)
During my single experience with N2O in college (a nitrous party for the entire dorm floor) I can remember experiencing a pronounced buzzing in my ears, roughly coincident with and proportional to the narcotic effect of the gas. It's worth mentioning that N2O is not as harmless as it once was thought to be. It oxidizes the cobalt ion in cobalamin (vitamin B12), producing an inactive compound, thus depleting the body's stores of this vitamin. Megaloblastic changes in the blood can be observed after about 24 hours of exposure (low-dose nitrous had been used for analgesia), and chronic exposure to the gas can produce a full-blown megaloblastic anemia and other symptoms of B12 deficiency.