Why is replacing oxygen in the blood with carbon monoxide a problem?

Answer 1

Carbon monoxide displaces oxygen from the hemoglobin molecule in the red blood cell. There are four binding sites for oxygen on each Hgb molecule. As the CO level rises, oxygen is increasingly displaced until, ultimately, little oxygen can be carried by the Hgb molecule and cells then die.

Answer 2

Hemoglobin, the molecule that effectively "carries" oxygen molecules and makes up your red blood cells, have a high affinity to CO2 molecules - a much higher affinity than that for Oxygen.

When in a CO rich environment, the oxygen molecules are left behind for those carbon monoxide molecules which bind more effectively.

Answer 3

the cardiovascular system so the blood vessels take deoxygenated blood through the heart, through the lungs and the gas exchange occurs here the deoxygenated blood CO2 is oxygenated so becomes oxygen.

Answer 4

Oxygen will not be delivered to the body's cells, which require oxygen for aerobic cellular respiration, the process in which food energy is released to form ATP, the energy currency of the cell. Without oxygen, the cells will have to rely on anaerobic respiration, which forms much less ATP. Humans cannot survive for very long with anaerobic respiration alone.

Answer 5

The Alveoli in the lungs is where the exchange of gasses occurs.

Answer 6

Hemoglobin prefers CO to oxygen and accepts it more than 200 times more readily than it accepts oxygen.