CARBON MONOXIDE - THE SILENT KILLER
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CARBON MONOXIDE – WHAT IT DOES TO YOU
- CO can catch you unaware as it is a colourless, odourless, tasteless toxic gas that is impossible for the human senses to detect.
- CO is absorbed into the body through the lungs and attaches itself to haemoglobin in the blood. CO starves the body tissue of vital oxygen, suffocating you from the inside out.
- When CO is inhaled into the body it combines with the blood, preventing it from absorbing oxygen.
- Poisoning from CO can happen in minutes or over a period of time depending on the amount of CO in the air.
- Prolonged or high level exposure to this toxic gas causes unconsciousness, brain damage and death.
- Heart attacks have also been associated with high carbon monoxide levels.
- Many cases of CO poisoning can often go undiagnosed or missed - medical proof requires the blood to be tested when CO is still present. Post mortems in the UK do not check CO levels.
- Carbon monoxide poisoning can have long lasting effects on health, quality of life and work which cannot be reversed if high or prolonged exposure to CO has occurred.