Carbon Monoxide

The toxicology of carbon monoxide is a large subject. In recent years three large compendia have been published: (1) The International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS) Environmental Health Criteria (EHC), Number 219 on Carbon Monoxide (2nd edn), 1999, (2) Carbon Monoxide Poisoning, ed. DG Penney, CRC Press, 2007; (3) The US Environmental Protection Agency's Criteria Document on Carbon Monoxide [US Environmental Protection Agency, An Introduction to indoor air quality (IAQ), Carbon Monoxide (CO)], available at http://www.epa.gov/iaq/co.html, accessed February 2013. These accounts provide a great store of information on carbon monoxide; we have not tried to précis these accounts, far less to provide an alternative compendium. Instead we have written an account that deals with some areas in detail and which touches lightly on others. Our selection has been guided by our perceptions of the needs of scientists, medical staff and others dealing with or advising on how to deal with casualties from fires. Thus we have said little about the possible and much discussed effects of long term exposure to low levels of carbon monoxide and nothing about time series epidemiological studies that have related the occurrence of myocardial infarction to daily peaks and hourly concentrations of carbon monoxide. These studies are, of course, important in considering the effects of both acute and chronic exposure to low concentrations of air pollutants. This chapter is about the effects of the rather higher concentrations of carbon monoxide produced by inhalation of the products of combustion of fires.