Carbon monoxide (CO) affects the oxygen carrying capacity of your lungs. CO comp
ID: 913910 • Letter: C
Question
Carbon monoxide (CO) affects the oxygen carrying capacity of your lungs. CO competes with oxygen for one of the four iron sites of your blood’s hemoglobin molecules. In fact, CO has about a 210-times stronger affinity for these sites than oxygen. Exposure to 50 ppm CO for 90 minutes has been found to impair one’s ability to time/interval discriminate; thus, motorist in heavily polluted areas may be more prone to accidents. Predict whether motorist at a greater risk to accidents if the CO concentration is 65 mg/m3? Assume a temperature of 298 K.
explain in details.
Explanation / Answer
CO does not affect your lungs, it affects the hemoglobin in your blood. It forms carboxy hemoglobin, which is more stable than oxy hemoglobin. So it effectively reduces the availability of oxy hemoglobin in the blood, reducing the oxygen available to the cells in your body, killing the person.
I don´t think that motorist may be more propen to accidents because 65mg/m3 is just 0.065ppm, which it´s negligible compared to 50ppm