Carbon monoxide is everywhere...

Over the last two Weeks I have been a little short on tox blog posts.  But this week one news item jolted me back.  "MTV star dies of carbon monoxide poisoning".  The death was carried by multiple news outlets including this piece on the Today show.  It seems that "Buckwild" star Shain Gandee, his uncle and a friend decided to do a little mudding.  As one who lived in rural central Texas; that sounds like a normal Saturday to me.   Unfortunately they got stuck in mud that covered a part of the truck.  Like all of us I suspect they ran the car in order to stay warm until someone showed up to pull them out.  But the mud covered and plugged the tail pipe. 

Carbon monoxide is a result of incomplete combustion of any fuel with carbon in it, including gasoline.  Carbon monoxide is a insidious killer.  It starves your vital organs of oxygen by altering the hemoglobin in your blood.  First you get get a little giddy and sleepy, then slowly go downhill until your heart stops.  With the tailpipe clogged there was no place for the exhaust to go.  So the carbon monoxide filled the truck. 

So carbon monoxide is everywhere.  Even in Ford Bronchos in the hills West Virginia.  Carbon monoxide knows no favorites.  Even reality TV stars.