When English chemist Joseph Priestley discovered ‘dephlogisticated nitrous air’, or nitrous oxide in 1772, he unknowingly revolutionised medical practice. What Mr Priestley didn’t know was the significant impact that N2O would have on the environment.
With a lifetime of 150 years in the atmosphere and a 100-year global warming potential 10 times that of carbon dioxide, N2O poses a significant problem.
Are we regularly bulk-buying N2O just to leak it straight into the sky? This is not a new idea. The Nitrous Oxide Project, started in NHS Lothian in 2021 by Alifia Chakera, found that usage of N2O in the theatre setting was much lower than anticipated, with significant wastage in the supply chain. In fact, hospitals that have undertaken similar analyses report that 95–99% of the N2O that’s bought is wasted due to leaks in both outdated manifold systems and in piped N2O supplies.