Nitric oxide: a greenhouse gas is used in the treatment of respiratory failure.

Medical science has long made the improbable probable, saving lives and improving quality of life. Upon the introduction of medical devices that can deliver safe quantities of the poisonous gas nitric oxide to help patients with respiratory and other illnesses, the FDA requested ASTM Committee F29 on Anesthetic and Respiratory Equipment to provide standards for these devices. Dr. Daniel Supkis and Mark Graber explain the delicate process of delivering NO to patients and how ASTM standards now in development will increase the safety of this procedure.