Why is Carbon, the building block of life, safe when eating or drinking (carbonated water), but not when breathing (carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide)?
In: Biology
When you breathe your lungs take in oxygen (O2) and give out carbon dioxide (CO2). It’s like a merry go round where oxygen gets on and carbon dioxide gets off.
Carbon Dioxide is safe to breathe – it’s what you breathe out of your lungs constantly. It’s when the air has carbon dioxide and not enough oxygen (O2) that you have a problem breathing carbon dioxide.
Carbon Monoxide is a different level of toxin – again because your body wants and needs to take in oxygen, but the carbon monoxide binds to the receptors that want to take in the oxygen but don’t. To continue the merry go round metaphor, the carbon monoxide gets on the merry go round, then refuses to get off when it comes around again even if there’s oxygen waiting to get on.
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