Concerns over 11-year-old children using nitrous oxide canisters

Concerns over 11-year-old children using nitrous oxide canisters

By Aimee Walsh

THERE is serious concern as children as young as 11 years old are using nitrous oxide canisters for a temporary high.

The use of nitrous oxide canisters amongst young people across South Dublin has been reported extensively in The Echo, but new concerns have risen over the young age of the children and teenagers that are using them.

PHOTO 2021 04 06 12 06 11 1

Nitrous oxide canisters are extremely dangerous

The canisters are typically used in the catering industry as a whipping cream agent but have become increasingly popular amongst young people inhaling them for ‘laughing gas’ - which creates a temporary feeling of euphoria.

Nitrous oxide can slow down your brain and body’s responses, and the HSE warned that when the gas is inhaled, it can displace air in the lungs and stops oxygen entering the blood flow and can be fatal.

According to local Councillor Dermot Richardson for Tallaght South, children as young as 11 are using the canisters, commonly known as silver bullets.

“I just think there should be a warning sent out to people about the dangers of them. I see the canisters regularly, as you are walking on the streets they are thrown everywhere. All the parents I have spoken to say the same, there seems to be more thrown on the street”, Cllr Richardson tells The Echo.

“I think it is getting worse, I have seen kids with them younger than 12. 

“They are getting them online – I think there must be people making money from them. Someone is buying them online and selling them to the kids because an 11 or 12-year-old child couldn’t get them delivered to their house because the parents would see them.”

PHOTO 2021 04 06 12 06 49 1

The ‘silver bullets’ can usually be found in mass amounts strewn across parks, green spaces, car parks, streets and playgrounds recently, indicating the increase in usage amongst young people.

“We are seeing it all around the place and parents are coming to me and saying, how are they getting away with it? I think there should be a call for a ban on these nitrous oxide cannisters, only for the catering trade, and that’s what they are for”, added Cllr Richardson.

“Around Killinarden we are seeing it more and more, but I don’t think it is just Tallaght, it is all over.

“I have been outside Tallaght and have seen them, they seem to be getting more popular with the kids of that age. It is not just a Tallaght issue, but I am representing the people in Tallaght and my concern is for the people around the area.”

By subscribing to The Echo you are supporting your local newspaper Click Here: Echo Online.

TAGS
Share This