To prevent adverse effects on human health as exposure to carbon monoxide (CO) increases adequate programs and policies must be adopted. Their formulation will require deliberate scientific judgment based on adequate information and the consideration of certain hypotheses which are reviewed here. Exposures to CO are widespread. For the U.S. urban population cigarette smoking is probably the most important source followed in importance by motor vehicle exhaust occupational sources and home heating and cooking devices. The median carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) concentration for those who smoke 1 pack of cigarettes daily and who inhale is 5.9% - a concentration sufficient to imply a serious threat to health in persons with underlying vascular insufficiency. This level of exposure may be responsible for some of the excess mortality from cardiovascular disease observed among cigarette smokers. Community air pollution may produce COHb concentrations in nonsmokers similar to those observed in smokers and the effects of these concentrations will be greater at high altitude. There has been considerable documentation of endogenous production of CO from home catabolism. Such production provides a tool for the study of hemolytic disorders is a hazard to infants in respirators and to men in submersibles and space capsules and may increase the risk of closed-circuit anesthesia. Low and commonly occurring CO exposures may impair accurate estimation of time intervals as well as the performance of more complex psychomotor tasks. A possible role of CO in motor vehicle accidents is suggested by data showing higher levels of COHb in drivers involved in accidents than in policemen and in other occupationally exposed populations.(AUTHORS MODIFIED)

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/162/3860/1352.full.pdf

Carbon monoxide and human health.

(1963). Effects of Mild Carbon Monoxide Intoxication. Archives of Environmental Health: An International Journal: Vol. 7, No. 5, pp. 524-530.

Effects of mild carbon monoxide intoxication.

Pathogen-free mice and rats were exposed in chambers to 50 ppM CO for 5 days/wk (approx. 95 hr) for 3 months to 2 yr. Reproduction, growth, aging, various metabolic parameters, susceptibility to experimental infection, and mortality were not affected by CO. In general, no effect other than that attributed to chamber effect (e.g., initial heartbeat and ECG) was observed.

Physiological and biochemical effects on rats and mice exposed to small concentrations of carbon monoxide for long periods

(1956). Improved Communication—Hygienic Standards for Daily Inhalation— American Industrial Hygiene Association Quarterly: Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 129-185.

Improved Communication—Hygienic Standards for Daily Inhalation—

The carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations encountered by pedestrians and workers in the streets of a large metropolis were monitored by a reliable and sensitive portable detector (the Ecolyzer). Up to 1,000 observations per day were collected for several months during the summer and fall of 1973. The CO levels ranged from 10 to 50 ppm (varying with wind speed and direction, atmospheric stability, traffic density, and the height of nearby buildings). Much higher average concentrations were found in such adverse sites as poorly ventilated underpasses and underground garages. Street closures for a pedestrian mall reduced levels on the mall to around the general urban background without large increases in readings on adjoining streets. Many street-workers have little medical supervision, and for this reason the urban eight-hour CO ceilings may be a more appropriate air quality target than the usual industrial figure of 50 ppm. However, even the latter is sometimes exceeded on busy city streets.

Carbon monoxide in the urban atmosphere: hazards to the pedestrian and the street-worker.

Data on rates of rejection, causes of rejection and the incidence of physical and mental defects among 18 and 19 year old registrants are being presented here in response to numerous requests for information on the physical status of this age group The information has been taken from a sample of 45,585 reports of physical examination and induction, D S S Form 221, received at National Headquarters of the Selective Service System They represent physical examinations of 42,273 white and 3,312 Negro registrants made at local boards and induction stations during December 1942 and January and February 19431 Registrants born on or after Jan 1, 1922 and on or before June 30, 1924 were required to register at Selective Service local boards on June 30, 1942 in the fifth registration but they did not become liable for training and service until the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940

Causes of rejection and the incidence of defects: among 18 and 19 year old selective service registrants

The Public Health Service and the Bureau of Mines have recently had occasion to make a series of clinical and laboratory examinations which it is believed will be useful in defining the region of safe exposure to carbon monoxide. The Port of New York Authority requested that a group of one hundred and fifty-six officers who had been assigned to duty in the Holland Tunnel in 1927 be examined to find out whether or not injury to health may have resulted from occupational exposure to carbon monoxide. These officers had been examined in 1932 by Bureau of Mines and Public Health Service physicians, but, because the findings were negative as far as occupational disease was concerned, and because funds for publication were limited at that time, a report was not published. The opportunities for investigating the effects of long-continued exposure to low concentrations of carbon monoxide are unusaually favorable in

https://jamanetwork.com/HttpHandlers/ArticlePdfHandler.ashx?journal=JAMA&articleId=253910&pdfFileName=jama_118_8_004.pdf

Thomas I. Edwards

Papers

Causes of rejection and the incidence of defects: among 18 and 19 year old selective service registrants

Effect of exposure to known concentrations of carbon monoxide: a study of traffic officers stationed at the holland tunnel for thirteen years

Causes of rejection and incidence of defects