Carbon Monoxide
Carbon monoxide, or CO as it is known to biologists, is one of the deadliest natural gases on Earth. While there are certainly gases that are more harmful in lower volumes, the threat posed by carbon monoxide often exceeds most other similar gases because of the fact that carbon monoxide is odorless, colorless, and tasteless.
Carbon monoxide overload affects the central nervous system, including the heart, and can easily kill even a person of robust health and strength. The toxicity of this gas can’t be stressed enough. In many countries, carbon monoxide is in fact the leading cause of death by poisoning. Many people might know of the dangers of carbon monoxide through the many suicides that are committed by leaving a car running in a closed garage. While a death like this is often intentional, many accidental deaths have occurred because of simple ignorance on the part of many as to just how dangerous this chemical truly is.
This isn’t to say that any exposure whatsoever to the gas is harmful or fatal. CO is in fact a natural occuring gas in our atmosphere, and the amount of CO in the average american home is in fact around five times more concentrated than what occurs naturally outside. Cigarette smoke and smoke from a fireplace actually has literally thousands of times more CO present and that still isn’t enough to poison somebody. What makes CO eventually fatal is prolonged exposure to the gas. This, however, is also a bit of a sliding scale. Exposure to CO through cigarettes means a prolonged poisoning over many years, while a few hours in a garage with the car running is more than enough to end somebody’s life immediately. Sometimes, living in a city that is too polluted can cause cancer simply because of the fact that the person in question spent their life inhaling amounts of CO that were deemed too large to be nonfatal in the end.
In the end, proper education on any kind of harmful gas or chemical should be part for the course if a person plans on being in the vicinity of such a substance. Caution should always be a must when dealing with, not just CO, but every chemical or substance of a similar nature. Safety should be the watchword on the minds of anybody who is repairing their car, while abstinence should be the term in question for anybody considering making cigarettes a lifelong habit.
Tags: accidental deaths, atmosphere, biologists, cancer, carbon monoxide, cause of death, central nervous system, leading cause of death, natural gases, toxicity