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When a carbon atom and an oxygen atom combine to form carbon monoxide, it is a relatively unstable molecule. The oxygen atom can still bond with something else, and when breathed enters the blood and attaches to red blood cells. Once it does that, it becomes stable, but unfortunately that stable state is unusable by the body - it has displaced a needed regular oxygen atom, and prevented the body from getting some of its oxygen. Losing a little oxygen from your blood is okay - the body has a lot of reserve capacity built in - but if you breathe in a lot of carbon monoxide, then too many red blood cells become attached to the carbon monoxide and not enough are free to carry the necessary oxygen. Depending on how much carbon monoxide is breathed in, the person will slowly or quickly suffocate from a lack of oxygen in the blood.

Or, put another way,The red colour in red blood cells comes from haemoglobin. This molecule combines with oxygen to form oxy-haemoglobin. As the blood circulates round the body, any cell needing an atom of oxygen takes it from a red blood cell and plain haemoglobin reappears.

When carbon monoxide gets into the lungs it attaches itself to a red cell, forming carboxy-haemoglobin. Carboxy-haemoglobin cannot carry oxygen. Cells cannot remove the carbon monoxide from the red cells, so the haemoglobin is permanently put out of action. If too much carbon monoxide is inhaled, enough individual body cells die from oxygen starvation to cause the death of the whole body.

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