Explain carbon monoxide poisoning.

Explanation

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a toxic air pollutant. It is exhaled from motor vehicles as on eof the exhaust gases, and also from cigarette smoke. Our blood hs respiratiory pigment, haemoglobin (Hb) in the erythrocytes (RBCs) and it has high affinity for oxygen. As a result, oxygen combines with haemoglobin in the lungs and is carried by blood to various body tissues body tissues as oxyhaemoglobin (OHb). Carbon monoxide (CO), a poisonous as, has 200 times more affinity for haemoglobin than oxygen. When the polluted air containing large amount of CO in inhaled, the CO then combines with haemoglobin to form a stable poisonous compound called carboxyhaemoglobin (COHb). This drastrically reduces the availability of oxygen to the body tissues and leads to suffocation and finally death.