Question

Exposure to carbon monoxide (from coal gas) is extremely dangerous and can kill a patient because

Answer 1

The combination of oxygen with haemoglobin is called oxyhaemoglobin and this ‘oxygenated’ blood is carried away from the lungs through the bloodstream to all the tissues of the body.

Carbon monoxide can also bind to haemoglobin but does so about 240 times more tightly than oxygen, forming a compound called carboxyhaemoglobin. This means that if both carbon monoxide and oxygen are inhaled, carbon monoxide will preferentially bind to haemoglobin. This reduces the amount of haemoglobin available to bind to oxygen, so the body and tissues become starved of oxygen. Hence it kills a patient