Nitrous oxide inside the cells, by a process catalyzed by the enzyme nitrous oxide reductase. Nitrous oxide has significant global warming potential as a greenhouse gas. On a per-molecule basis, considered over a 100-year-period, nitrous oxide has 298 times the atmospheric heat-trapping ability of carbon dioxide (), however, because of its low concentration (less than 1/1000 of that of ), its contribution to the greenhouse effect is less than one-third that of carbon dioxide, and also less than water vapour and methane. On the other hand, since 38% or more of the entering the atmosphere is the result of human activity, and
Nitrous oxide that cuts off their supply of fresh air. Long-term exposure to nitrous oxide may cause vitamin B deficiency. It inactivates the cobalamin form of vitamin B by oxidation. Symptoms of vitamin B deficiency, including sensory neuropathy, myelopathy, and encephalopathy, may occur within days or weeks of exposure to nitrous oxide anaesthesia in people with subclinical vitamin B deficiency. Symptoms are treated with high doses of vitamin B, but recovery can be slow and incomplete. People with normal vitamin B levels have stores to make the effects of nitrous oxide insignificant, unless exposure is repeated and prolonged (nitrous oxide abuse). Vitamin