HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF CARBON MONOXIDE – COLTON HEATING & COOLING

History of Carbon Monoxide

"Coal fumes lead to heavy head and death" - First mention of the lethal effects of coal fumes --- Aristotle, Greece, 3rd century B.C.
Inhabitants of Nuceria killed by CO suffocation in the bath --- Hannibal, Carthage, 247-183 B.C.
Coal fumes were used for suicide and execution --- Cicero, Rome, 106-43 B.C.; suicide of Roman author Seneca, 65 A.D.
A combustible gas that burned with a bright blue flame described --- Joseph Priestley, England, 1772
First clinical description of coal gas poisoning --- Harmant, France, 1775
CO identified as the toxic substance in coal gas --- LeBlanc, France, 1842
Shown that CO produces hypoxia by reversible combination with hemoglobin --- Claude Bernard, France, 1857
Demonstration that rats survive CO poisoning when placed in oxygen at 2 atmospheres pressure --- John Scott Haldane, England, 1895
Polar explorer Richard Byrd nearly loses life as result of chronic CO poisoning --- early 20th century
611 CO-related deaths occur in New York City from use of illuminating gas --- 1927
Treatment of CO poisoning with Hyperbaric Oxygen (HBO) in experimental animals --- End & Long, U.S., 1942
First clinical use of HBO therapy in CO poisoning --- Smith & Sharp, 1960
International tennis star Vitas Gerulaitus loses life in CO accident involving a pool heater, September 1994
Use as euthanasia agent by medical suicide advocate, Jack Kevorkian, M.D. --- 1990s