How does carbon monoxide cause poisoning?
To explain this aspect, we need to explain how the body uses oxygen from the air. Oxygen is transported around the body via the red blood cells. Specifically, oxygen binds to a substance within the red blood cells called haemoglobin, which is also responsible for their red colour. Haemoglobin takes up oxygen as blood passes through the lungs, and at the same time carbon dioxide, produced by the body’s metabolism, is released from the blood into the exhaled breath. 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 an
