I've breathed pure nitrogen, oxygen, nitrous oxide... and NOTHING had the same effect as near straight carbon dioxide. (I used to experiment on myself until they told me it might end up like this!)
You can't inhale pure CO2 - somehow your lungs reflexively signal your diaphragm to expel. With nitrogen or nitrous oxide, you'd eventually pass out while breathing and you'd die for lack of oxygen. With CO2, I believe you'd wretch and choke to death if you were forced to breathe high concentrations. It isn't poison, Wikipedia bears that out :-) but poisonous gas might be a more pleasant 'way to go'. -WaV On Sat, Jul 28, 2012 at 11:36 PM, Louise Power <power_lou...@hotmail.com> wrote: > I went back and looked. Could have just been a typo. Every other place it > said dioxide. > >> Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2012 21:42:26 -0400 >> To: texascavers@texascavers.com >> From: mmin...@caver.net >> Subject: RE: [Texascavers] Carbon Dioxide > >> >> Weird that the source Louise cited brought up cabon >> _mon_oxide poisoning. That is irrelevant and _much_ worse. Carbon >> monoxide binds very strongly to hemoglobin, similarly to cyanide and >> unlike carbon dioxide and oxygen, which bind quite reversibly. CO >> very quickly becomes toxic, whereas CO2 is relatively benign, causing >> illness but not fatality unless high levels are maintained for a >> prolonged period. >> Fortunately carbon monoxide is relatively rare in the >> natural world and comes mainly from incomplete combustion. Simple >> confinement will not likely produce CO poisoning unless the >> atmosphere is already contaminated. >> >> Mark >> >> At 07:32 PM 7/28/2012, Louise Power wrote: >> > >Some external sources that can cause carbon monoxide poisoning >> > include cigarette smoke, gas water heaters, charcoal grills, boats >> > with engine, diesel or gasoline powered generators, and spray paints. >> >> Please reply to mmin...@caver.net >> Permanent email address is mmin...@illinoisalumni.org >> >> >> --------------------------------------------------------------------- >> Visit our website: http://texascavers.com >> To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com >> For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com >> --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
