In article ,
says...
Rob Morley typed


I suspect you're either getting confused between carbon monoxide
(lighter than air, toxic) and carbon dioxide (heavier than air, non-
toxic), or half-remembering the difference between town gas (contains
carbon monoxide - can poison you but is lighter than air so will
disperse more readily) and natural gas (basically non-toxic but heavier
than air and can drown you).

I doubt it. Many schoolkids know and disseminate the line that CO bonds
strongly to haemoglobin. This is seen as reversible. (Glod save us from
amateur scientists!) Knowledge of its action at cellular level needs a
deeper knowledge of biochemistry etc. I think I was only thus
enlightened relatively recently.

I was amused that your post was essentially so similar to mine; we must
be singing from the same crib sheet ;-)

I think you think I'm more knowledgeable than I am - by cellular level I
meant it reduces the ability of red blood cells to carry oxygen. I
thought it was reversible. I am not, nor have I ever aspired to be, a
biochemist - give me physics any day (but keep it simple) :-)