Carbon Monoxide (CO)

Carbon monoxide (CO):

Carbon monoxide (CO) is a poisonous, colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas. CO is a common industrial hazard resulting from the incomplete burning of natural gas and any other material containing carbon such as gasoline, kerosene, oil, propane, coal, or wood.

Effects of Nitric oxide (NO) on human health:

NOx mainly impacts on respiratory conditions causing inflammation of the airways at high levels. Long term exposure can decrease lung function, increase the risk of respiratory conditions and increases the response to allergens. NOx also contributes to the formation of fine particles (PM) and ground level ozone, both of which are associated with adverse health effects.

NO exerts crucial roles in vascular and neuronal signal transduction, smooth muscle contractility, bioenergetics, platelet adhesion and aggregation, immunity, and cell death regulation. The evidence accumulated over the last 25 years suggests that a defective control of the NO levels causes pathologies, such as hypertension, cardiovascular dysfunctions, neurodegeneration, arthritis, asthma and septic shock.

Environmental effects of CO:

Carbon monoxide reacts with other pollutants in the air to form potentially harmful ground level ozone. This occurs close to the site of emission. It does not have any significant environmental effects at a global level.

Interested Parties including Regulatory Authorities:

1. 1. Persons affected by CO
   2. Industries, Laboratories using/ Generating CO
   3. Warehouses Containing Chemicals of CO
   4. Motor Vehicles for personal and commercial uses
   5. Private / Govt. Projects to control CO
   6. Handling and transportation of chemical containing CO
   7. Local Environmental Department/ Authorities
   8. Local Government Authorities like Municipalities, City Corporation etc.
   9. Local Law Enforcing Agencies like Police, Magistrate and Regulatory Authorities etc.

Benefit of Monitoring:

By monitoring long-term contamination trends, every country establishes baseline contamination levels, making it possible for early identification of contamination events. Daily events and long term trends are captured and steps taken to reduce environmental emission/ pollution and enhance the environmental performance of the society.