User:Tsoppe/Carbon monoxide poisoning

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Carbon monoxide is deathly when breathed because it displaces oxygen in the blood and deprives the heart, brain and other vital organs of oxygen. Therefore, it steals the body's ability to use oxygen. Significant amounts of CO can kill you in minutes without knowledge, which results in an individual losing consciousness and suffocate. Cigarette smoke is also a source of CO.

CO is a colorless and odorless gas which is initially non-irritating. CO is referred to 'silent killer' since it sneaks up without one knowing. Sooty or brown-yellowish stains surrounding the leaking appliance is evidence of possible carbon monoxide leak. It is produced during incomplete burning of organic matter. This can occur from motor vehicles, heaters, or cooking equipment that run on carbon-based fuels. Carbon monoxide primarily causes adverse effects by combining with hemoglobin to form carboxyhemoglobin (HbCO) preventing the blood from carrying oxygen and expelling carbon dioxide as carbaminohemoglobin. Additionally, many other hemoproteins such as myoglobin, Cytochrome P450, and mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase are affected, along with other metallic and non-metallic cellular targets.

Carbon monoxide poisoning is relatively common, resulting in more than 20,000 emergency room visits a year in the United States. It is the most common type of fatal poisoning in many countries. Most fatalities from CO toxicity result from fires, however stoves, portable heaters, and automobile exhaust calculate one third of deaths from malfunctioning systems or suicide. In the United States, non-fire related cases result in more than 400 deaths a year. Poisonings occur more often in the winter, particularly from the use of portable generators during power outages. The toxic effects of CO have been known since ancient history. The discovery that hemoglobin is affected by CO emerged with an investigation by James Watt and Thomas Beddoes into the therapeutic potential of hydrocarbonate in 1793, and later confirmed by Claude Bernard between 1846 and 1857.