What is carbon monoxide poisoning and why is it lethal to humans? What is the chemical reaction that occurs in the body when carbon monoxide is inhaled?

Question

Answer

Good question. Let me explain a little about blood first. Your red blood cells (rbc's) are basically little bags of a substance called hemoglobin. In fact, rbc's are the only cells in your body without nuclei; they lose them when they mature so that more hemoglobin can be packed into the cell. Hemoglobin molecules are little oxygen carriers. Each molecule has four 'seats' that can be filled with oxygen. They can pick up oxygen in your lungs and deliver it all over your body. Every cell needs a supply of oxygen.

Carbon monoxide (CO) is very dangerous because it sticks to your hemoglobin better than oxygen does. It 'hogs the seats' so that oxygen can't get a ride. And those CO molecules keep riding around, never giving their seats up to the oxygen. This means there's no way to get oxygen to your brain, heart, or other cells and those cells start to die. The chemical reactions that stop happening when there's no oxygen are the ones that make ATP, the form of energy that all of our cells use.

You can't see, smell, or taste CO, so it's very dangerous. Things that burn fuel (furnaces, cars, barbeque grills, etc.) produce CO, and that's why they have to be ventilated to the outside.

Thanks for asking,

Answer

Carbon monoxide is a poisonous gas that has no smell or taste. Breathing it in can make you unwell, and it can kill if you're exposed to high levels.
Every year there are around 25 deaths from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning in England and Wales.
After carbon monoxide is breathed in, it enters your bloodstream and mixes with haemoglobin (the part of red blood cells that carry oxygen around your body), to form carboxyhaemoglobin.

Answer

Carbon monoxide is so much poisonous that if inhaled by a healthy person he may be brain dead

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