Anyone can call the Medical Products Agency's Poison Information Center for guidance and help, which receives around 100,000 questions a year.

Johanna Nordmark Grass, chief physician at GIC, believes that it is a blunt measure to predict societal trends based on the conversations: The callers must state for themselves what they have ingested and far from everyone who experiences problems with nitrous oxide hears from them.

Nevertheless, they see an extremely clear increase in calls related to nitrous oxide use.

- There is reason to be worried.

Nitrous oxide is used in a way I have never seen before, says Johanna Nordmark Grass.

In addition to calls to the hotline, calls from municipalities and field assistants have also increased in 2021.

- We have signals from all over the country that this has increased, it is not a Stockholm phenomenon.

Sweden does not stand out from other countries in this respect, according to GIC, a similar trend is seen in the rest of Europe and globally.

Increase in those who take large amounts

The number of calls concerning long-term and extensive nitrous oxide use has increased tenfold since last year.

GICs are aware that there are young people who take 50 to 100 nitrous oxide cartridges during a day or weekend, which risks knocking out vitamin B12 in the body.

In the worst case, it can cause a rash on the nerves in the form of numbness, nerve loss and clumsiness.

- It is probably quite unknown to many that you can get these symptoms if you use a lot of nitrous oxide.

The more you use it, the more dangerous it is, but it is not possible to set a minimum level for when the use is safe and not, says Nordmark Grass.