Quote:
Originally Posted by D.O.G.F.A.N.
There is no mention in Wiki as to this gas having carcinogenic properties, although it will kill you in certain circumstances. Just ask any canary who worked down the pit. The gas enters the blood stream some 200 times faster than Oxygen.
Best try to avoid it is my tip
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As an ex-firefighter, I was taught that Carbon Monoxide is EXTREMELY POISONOUS. It grabs onto the Haemoglobin in the blood and forms CarboxyHaemoglobin - preventing the usual arrangement where oxygen from the lungs binds with Haemoglogin to form OxyHaemoglobin. This will lead to unconsciousness and eventually death. Once it's in your bloodstream it's hard to get out.
The giveaway symptom is drowsyness, together with a 'cherry red' complexion - the victim looks very healthy, but is in fact in great danger.
However this rarely occurs in the open because it should dissipate into the air. It's in enclosed spaces like sheds and cellars where it can build up.
I'm led to believe that modern internal combustion engines don't produce significant amounts of CO, due in part of the catalytic converter scrubbing it.
However this is all from memory when I was a lad, back in the 1980s. The world was very different then.
