• Question: how can carbon monoxide kill us in a car ? (i got told that it can i dont know if its true or not)

    Asked by anon-1953 to Donna, Jo, Mark, timcraggs on 24 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Donna MacCallum

      Donna MacCallum answered on 23 Jun 2010:

      You used to be able to kill yourself by attaching a hose to the exhaust of a car and feeding it into the car window – then sitting in an enclosed space with the engine running. there are still instances of people trying to do this, but what they don’t know is that cars nowadays all have catalytic converters. One of the roles of the catalytic converter is to convert carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide (not toxic). Usually the person trying to kill themselves wake up when the car engine stops because it has run out of fuel – makes me laugh every time!!!

    • Photo: Joanna Buckley

      Joanna Buckley answered on 23 Jun 2010:

      Hello abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz!

      It can’t kill you when you’re just normally trundling along in a car but it was used when people wanted to commit suicide. They’d attach a hose to the exhaust, close all the windows and get inside and wait for the cabin bit of the car to be filled with carbon monoxide. Basically, carboxyhaemoglobin is formed by the carbon monoxide and your hemoglobin in your red blood cells fusing together. This means that the hemoglobin can’t deliver oxygen to your body and you die.

      People who have very old (I mean really really really old) gas central heating systems where the flue (the bit that goes outside to pump gases away) means that it pumps is back in the house (which is very rare) are advised to get them checked out. Carbon monoxide doesn’t have a smell so you just feel a bit drowsy then you never regain consciousness. Sad but true 🙂

    • Photo: Tim Craggs

      Tim Craggs answered on 24 Jun 2010:

      Hi Alphabet!

      Carbon Monoxide poisoning can indeed kill you. It is because carbon monoxide (chemical formula CO) is quite similar to oxygen (chemical formula O2) and it binds to the protein that carries oxygen around your body, called hemoglobin. The problem is, that when CO is bound to the hemoglobin, oxygen can’t bind, so you do not get oxygen to your brain which causes it to shut down. So be very careful with CO!

    • Photo: Mark Lancaster

      Mark Lancaster answered on 24 Jun 2010:

      Yes it’s deadly – it combines with the hemoglobin in the blood and so stops oxygen binding to the hemoglobin and so reduces the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood.

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