How might it affect the environment?

Nitrous oxide does not have a local environmental impact. On a global scale however it does contribute to global warming and is the third most important greenhouse gas . Although relatively small amounts are released, it has a high "global warming potential" (310 times that of carbon dioxide). Nitrous oxide also damages the ozone layer, thus reducing the protection offered from harmful UV sun rays.

How might exposure to it affect human health?

At normal environmental concentrations, nitrous oxide is not harmful to humans. Inhalation of higher concentrations in an enclosed space could however exclude oxygen - causing dizziness, nausea and eventually unconsciousness. Depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer (in which nitrous oxide plays a part) means that humans may be exposed to high doses of UV sunlight which might cause skin cancers.

fyi

The only greenhouse gas that has a significant effect on climate is water vapor. Water vapor has been increasing 1.5% per decade, 8% since the increased rate began in about 1960. http://globalclimatedrivers2.blogspot.com

N2O is an ozone depleting substance which is increasing in importance and it will eventually become more important than the CFCs (which are banned in the Montreal protocol and thus disappear slowly from the atmosphere). This effect both human health (skin cancer) and the climate.

Article Nitrous Oxide (N2O): The Dominant Ozone-Depleting Substance ...

Kenneth: I don't read your unsourced clippings.

N2O destroys stratospheric ozone all over the globe just like CFCs. It is not confined to the Antarctic vortex.

Proof AGW theory & IPCC are wrong has been hiding in plain sight. Demonstrated by ‘notch’ in Top-Of-Atmosphere radiation measurements, energy absorbed at low altitude by CO2 molecules is immediately redirected to water vapor molecules. Influence of CO2 compared to water vapor can be no more than the ratio of CO2 quantum mechanics line count*intensity to H2O quantum mechanics line count*intensity This ratio is approximately (71*0.0025) / (423*0.4) = 0.001 = 0.1%. CO2 has no significant effect on climate. Same applies to all other ghg which do not condense in the atmosphere. http://globalclimatedrivers2.blogspot.com

yes

"Should we now ban microbes from adding N2O? We are intent on banning CO2 so it make take another global conference?" The world is not about to make a new treaty about N2O to address the effect on ozone and global warming. The reason is that N2O was already included in the regulated greenhouse gasses from the Kyoto protocol and thus also considered in the Paris Accord which increases the regulation target. http://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol/items/3145.php The significance is that if N2O emissions increase CO2 and CH4 emissions have to be reduced more and faster.

https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/news/quarterly/fall2009/nitrous_oxide_top_ozone_depleting_emission.html

http://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol/items/3145.php

Kenneth – this was fully described by Professor Crutzen (Paul Jozef Crutzen ) in 1970 which he got 1/3 share of the 1995 Nobel prize in chemistry for. If you are unable to look it up in Wikipedia or goggle yourself just follow the NOAA link I gave. It explains this and point to the Science publication that explains with further discussion (Ravishankara et al, 2009, A.R. Ravishankara). As you have repeatedly admitted that you don’t understand how CFC deplete ozone (the other 2/3-part of the 1995 Nobel price) you will not understand the evidence for this either as the mechanisms are the same. https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1995/

Anybody with a chemical background can get a fine overview of the N2O-Ozone depletion mechanism from the introduction of the Portman et al. 2012 paper which I have used in my teaching.

Article The Influence of Nitrogen Oxides on Atmosphere Ozone Content

Article Nitrous Oxide (N2O): The Dominant Ozone-Depleting Substance ...

Article Stratospheric ozone depletion due to nitrous oxide: Influenc...

Kenneth, I am not going to find more material for you. You have google and no useful work.

N2O doesn't have a sink in the troposphere which is the reason it stays in the atmosphere until it is fotolysed in the stratosphere there it makes NO radicals that degrade ozone. This has been known since 1970 and there is no scientific debate about the evidence or mechanisms for this.

I don't think anybody found any relevance in producing that. If so you will have to find it yourself.

Perhaps you should also look into correcting the 26 Science papers mentioned in your profile which you don't have.

Kenneth, then you invent a statement for me that I have not made it is your own lie. You have not read the references you were given and I am not going to waste time search for stuff that no scientist had a question about.

Then go search. It is already a peer-reviewed paper so real scientist in the field think the evidence is sufficient.

Well. The proper nitrous oxide has little impact. Nevertheless, the products of its oxidation do influence the climate and human health. And strongly!

Volodymyr:W

hat are THE products of its oxidation? and where are they formed so that they influence human health?