Text 7879, 52 rader
Skriven 2008-05-26 20:59:00 av JOAN MACDIARMID (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av DALE SHIPP
Ärende: CO
==========
 Hi, Dale,

 ML> Anyhow, if CO is driven out of the meat, where does it go? I guess
 ML> the cook breathes it?

 DS> Does it perhaps combine with the oxygen in the air to turn into CO2?
 DS> That sounds like a question for our resident chemist:-}}

 Not immediately, at least, it's stable enough on its
 own. But for heavens sake, we are talking such a
 minuscule amount in the first place, I don't see that
 anyone would be concerned. In the first place, it
 wouldn't be whooshing out of the meat as soon as the
 plastic was opened. CO is a very strong ligand, and
 only gradually would diffuse out as oxygen displaced
 it. And it would dissipate in the surrounding air,
 never reaching a harmful concentration. Yes, CO is
 considered toxic, but it is not a cumulative toxin,
 building up in the body over a lifetime. It is
 rapidly cleared from the body as soon as clean, O2
 rich air is available and the source of the CO has
 been removed. Even if it is somewhat a stronger
 binder to the iron in hemoglobin, equilibria can
 be forced by putting the competing O2 in higher
 concentration, eventually displacing the CO and
 allowing the lungs to breathe it back out for you.

 I think Jim's regulators forbidding this in Canadian
 meats are simply concerned this practice may be used
 to mask poor quality/freshness, not because of
 intrinsic danger to consumers. (Maybe some to
 workers in the processing plant unless they wear
 respirators.)

 BTW, I don't exactly know what happens to
 atmospheric CO to keep it from building up,
 but I suspect it does get bound to various
 available metal atoms, and in that form, is
 likely to be oxidized or reduced to more
 harmless forms. The attachment to the metal
 ion would be a form of catalysis. But I
 suspect if you mixed pure CO with pure O2
 in a completely metal-free container,
 nothing would happen chemically without some
 catalytic process.

 Joan

... I call things as I see them; If I didn't see them, I make them up!
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