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InvestigatesNitrous OxideLOCAL AUTHORITIES ARE collecting thousands of discarded nitrous oxide canisters each year, according to new figures obtained by The Journal Investigates.
But the canisters are also proving to be problematic for the waste industry, with more than 160,000 ending up in waste facilities every year causing problems for machinery and workers.
A representative group told our team one Irish waste facility recorded up to 120 exploding canisters over a recent two-week period.
More than 13,000 of these canisters have also been collected by three of Dublin’s local authorities – Dublin City Council, Fingal County Council and South Dublin County Council – over the last few years.
However, Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown County Council, along with most other local authorities across the county, does not actively record the number collected and only does so on an ad-hoc basis.
The issue of discarded canisters appears to be on the rise. Dublin City Council has collected 1,840 discarded nitrous oxide canisters in the first three months of 2026, already surpassing the total collected during all of 2025.
Fingal County Council appears to collect the most of any local authority, with approximately 8,900 canisters collected between 2024 and 2025.
A spokesperson for the council said that 2026 figures are expected to be in line with last year, at around 4,000.
Nitrous oxide use has been highlighted as a growing public health concern, particularly around younger people using the canisters.
The Journal Investigates has previously reported how easy it is to obtain nitrous oxide, with our investigation last year finding it for sale on Amazon and Irish classified ad sites.
Our team asked the local authorities outside the capital for similar figures, but the vast majority either do not collect the canisters or do not record how many they do find.
Part of the issue impacting local authorities is the difficulty of safely disposing of these discarded canisters.
Nitrous oxide canisters are highly pressurised containers and so can’t be disposed of through normal waste streams.
The canisters can also explode if crushed or exposed to intense heat, which can cause damage to machines when being processed through the domestic waste system.
This means that workers must separate out any canisters that make their way through the waste system and specialist contractors are often required to safely dispose of the collected canisters.
Figures obtained by Sinn Féin TD Mark Ward show that it cost Fingal County Council almost €100,000 to dispose of their collected canisters in 2024 and 2025.
Other local authorities are having to store the canisters until they can find a way to get rid of them.
A spokesperson for South Dublin County Council told The Journal Investigates they “currently have approximately 1,500 canisters stored safely”.
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Nitrous oxide is a colourless, sweet-smelling gas that is sometimes used in medicine for sedation or pain relief. It is also used in catering to make whipped cream, making policing its importation and use challenging.
Recreational use, which has surged in recent years, involves discharging gas from the canisters into a balloon before inhaling.
While the high from inhaling nitrous oxide is short-lived – lasting only for up to a minute – it can be detrimental to health.
Its usual effects can include dissociation and giddiness, while for some, headaches, dizziness or nausea.
But it can also cause devastating frostbite burns, as well as the potential for paralysis and suffocation.
Research from the RCSI [Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland] University of Medicine and Health Sciences earlier this year found that young people in Ireland are increasingly being diagnosed with spinal cord damage from recreational use of nitrous oxide.
One 18-year-old from the study who displayed symptoms had used 20 nitrous oxide canisters. But another, who was 16, had only used three.
Professor Seamus Looby, who led the study, told The Journal Investigates there is no safe amount of nitrous oxide a person can take, unless it is supervised by a medical professional as part of anaesthesia, where “very, very small quantities” are used.
A mother whose son ended up with severe medical issues as a result of his use of nitrous oxide previously told The Journal he lost feeling in his feet and fingers and was unable to walk at the height of his symptoms.
Looby, also a consultant neuroradiologist at Beaumont Hospital, said one of the warning signs of spinal cord damage is something known as proprioception, which is the body’s sense of its own position and movement.
As this is controlled by the back of the spinal cord, Looby explained, people who misuse nitrous oxide can lose this sense, so when they close their eyes, “they have no sense of where their limbs are”. He added:
Their arms and legs are like alien limbs to them [and] they lose total function.
And while most people studied saw some improvement in their symptoms, “nobody who came back from [the] follow-up was absolutely back to normal, they all had a degree of damage and symptoms,” Looby added.
Admissions to Irish hospitals for young adults presenting with neurological symptoms caused by nitrous oxide have increased four-fold on a quarterly basis over a four-year period, according to a study published in the Irish Medical Journal in April.
The international medical literature has also reported cases of children as young as 11 or 12 using nitrous oxide, Looby said.
Part of the appeal of nitrous oxide is the ease of access with it being readily available online, and the legal grey area it currently sits in.
Despite its recreational use, nitrous oxide is not a controlled substance under Ireland’s Misuse of Drugs Act 1977, though it is an offence to sell a psychoactive substance – which nitrous oxide is – for human consumption.
The gas also has a legitimate use in the catering industry making whipped cream in restaurants or commercial kitchens, which has made policing its import and use challenging.
A spokesperson for Revenue told our team it can “detain and seize psychoactive substances in instances where there are reasonable grounds for believing that the goods being imported are not intended to be utilised for legitimate purposes.”
And figures supplied to The Journal Investigates by the agency show that more than 100,000 canisters were seized in 2024 and 2025.
CEWEP Ireland, the representative body for Ireland’s two waste-to-energy incinerator plants, has also encountered huge quantities of nitrous oxide canisters.
One of these plants is located in Dublin, while the other is in Meath.
In a letter sent to Minister of State at the Department of Environment, Alan Dillon, last year, they estimated that “approximately 160,000 discarded canisters annually end up in waste-to-energy facilities”.
Data gathered by CEWEP and presented to the minister show that there have been several explosions in one of the Irish plants from discarded canisters, causing up to €150,000 in damage.
It’s a similar story across the rest of Europe, the report shows. Belgium recorded over 2,000 explosions in just the first seven months of 2024.
These explosions are not only costly to repair, but they also pose a serious risk to the safety of staff.
The report states that workers in other European countries “have narrowly escaped serious injury from the pressure and shrapnel caused by such explosions.”
A spokesperson for CEWEP Ireland told The Journal Investigates that “large numbers of canisters continue to enter member facilities”, adding that “one member facility has recorded up to 120 exploding canisters over a recent two-week period.”
Thankfully, no worker safety incidents have occurred in Ireland related to nitrous oxide explosions to date.
In response to the difficulties facing local authorities, a new working group has been set up with the aim of developing guidance and training on the safe handling and transport of discarded nitrous oxide canisters.
It includes representatives from the Department of Environment and several local authorities, including Dublin City Council, Cork County Council, Waterford City & County Council and Galway City Council.
Meeting minutes from the first gathering in April, obtained by The Journal Investigates under Freedom of Information, show that the safety of local authority staff when handling these canisters has been raised by unions seeking action on the issue.
Siptu divisional organiser Brendan O’Brien told our team they’ve raised the issue with local authorities seeking “improved health and safety measures” in the form of “protocols and procedures” so that their members aren’t “exposed to risk in terms of either the collection or disposal of canisters.”
Records also show that a business case to seek financial support for local authorities to dispose of discarded canisters is expected to be submitted to the minister in the next few months.
The meeting was told of reports from Revenue that show a link between the number of canisters seized and festival season, with canisters “common in post-festival clean-ups”.
A major challenge identified by the working group is when canisters are disposed of in litter bins and aren’t visible to council staff who collect them.
A spokesperson for the Department of Environment told our team they are engaging “with the local authority sector and other relevant stakeholders to prioritise the development of a system which will assist local authorities in managing discarded nitrous oxide canisters as a matter of urgency.”
They added that there is no indication of how much the proposed financial support will cost, as the business case has not yet been submitted for approval.
Among the next steps proposed by the nitrous oxide working group was a review of Sinn Féin TD Mark Ward’s bill on limiting the sale of the gas to the public.
The Sale of Nitrous Oxide and Related Products Bill 2025 would regulate and licence the sale of nitrous oxide, limiting it to purchasers where it has a legitimate use, such as in the catering industry. This licensing system would also apply to online sale of nitrous oxide.
The bill would prevent the sale of nitrous oxide to those under 18, but not criminalise the end user.
Ward told The Journal Investigates his bill has been drafted with the support of the Oireachtas’ in-house legal advisers to ensure “every T is crossed and every I is dotted”.
He also offered the bill to the government for them to take and reintroduce as a government-sponsored bill, saying that this isn’t about party politics or getting a win for the opposition. He added:
Nobody’s winning this. [And] the losers are the young people that are turning up to hospital…they’re the losers in this.
But in a recent response from Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan to a parliamentary question submitted by Ward, the government confirmed that it has no intention of introducing its own legislation.
Instead, the minister cited new EU legislation on the way that would effectively ban the sale of nitrous oxide to the public.
The EU has classified nitrous oxide as being harmful to reproductive health, which will add it to the list of substances banned under EU chemicals legislation.
This move will prevent the sale of nitrous oxide to the public, but the legislation classifying nitrous oxide as harmful does not come into force until February next year.
Ward said that he’s not sure whether this EU law will work in practice, but called on the government to act with urgency on this issue and not wait for the EU legislation.
“Why should we wait for Europe,” he asked, adding, “we’re a sovereign state, and we can bring in our own laws now.”
Reporter: Conor O’Carroll • Editor: Noel Baker • Social Media: Cliodhna Travers • Main Image Design: Lorcan O’Reilly
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