It is the proverbial silent killer. It can creep into a home, office or vehicle at any time and take lives before anyone realizes it's present. Experts say carbon monoxide is the leading cause of accidental death from poisoning in the United States.
Carbon monoxide is a gas that is usually produced from combustion.
The way it works is insidious. Invisible and odorless, it has a strong affinity for hemoglobin. That is the element in blood that carries oxygen molecules from the lungs and drops them off to the body's cells. Hemoglobin has an affinity for carbon monoxide that is about 240 times stronger than oxygen, so as CO is taken into the body from breathing, the hemoglobin would rather transport it throughout the body than carry the life-giving oxygen. Essentially, serious carbon-monoxide poisoning causes oxygen deprivation.