Carbon monoxide: the elusive environmental toxicant

The pivotal role of carbon monoxide (CO) in understanding the pathology of diseases is long overdue. The significance of this odourless, inert gas was trivialised throughout the years in advancement of corporate interest, wit h over-riding emphasis on economic gains. Thus, under the auspices of advan cement of socioeconomic interest, the role of carbon monoxide, an extremely dangerous biproduct of incomplete combustion of any hydrocarbon, was inevi tably obscured by the lure of profitability. Although odourless and inert, CO is a potent chemical asphyxiant whose prim ary toxic action is through hypoxia. It is on the basis of its prolonged ef fects at cellular level, by alteration to redox state of each and every sin gle living cell, that, the author argues, it contributes to the ever-increa sing levels of neurodegenerative, autoimmune, maladaptive, behavioural synd romes known to be especially prevalent within industrialised western societ ies. (C) 2001 Harcourt Publishers Ltd.