Re: [A/S] acceptable co level

[Dick Kenan <as5368@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

         You're right, that's the posted "safe" level.  See

http://www.carbonmonoxidekills.com/coinformation.htm

for more information.
         I always wonder about published "safe" levels for CO, since it's a 
cumulative poison in the sense that once it gloms onto a site on a 
hemoglobin molecule (there are four such sites on each molecule),  it's 
pretty much there for good.  So, the molecule is less effective until the 
red cell is discarded by the body.  I presume they calculate the rate that 
it's accumulating at 50 ppm and the known rate of death for red cells.
         My Airstream has a combination CO/smoke alarm.  Does anyone know a 
way to check the effectiveness of the CO part?  Being a physicist, I don't 
trust instruments (but have implicit faith in labels); chemists tend to be 
the opposite (for very good reasons).  ;-)

- Dick
(5368)