Why is Carbon, the building block of life, safe when eating or drinking (carbonated water), but not when breathing (carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide)?

Question

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

Answer 1

The *element* carbon is a versatile atom that can build an endless number of *chemical* structures.

Those structures may be the massive and complex molecules we rely on, or they may be simple structures like carbon dioxide.

The wide variety of carbon-containing molecules may be helpful like sugars and fats, indifferent like diamonds and carbon dioxide, or dangerous like carbon monoxide and cyanide.

When you change the bonding structure, you change the properties.

H2O is critical for life. H2O2 will dissolve your bones.