Show Idle (>14 d.) Chans


← 2020-11-21 | 2020-11-24 →
adlai: thimbronion: ... and what are chem&phys-ists supposed to do with that info.., refer you to a biologist? all I can say [not being any of the three, meself] is that I'm glad you kept as many of your neurons aerated as you did.
adlai has not attempted to confine his own living airspace in longer than a solar year, and strongly recommends some form of holistic "think of your house as a living organism" for those who don't have their own pet biochemistry phd as an on-tap consultant.
thimbronion: adlai: I dunno - spoke with an MD - he seemed to have no idea what exposure for hours at that level would do. Chemists (those who work in fabs, for example) generally seem to have some idea of what's out to get them.
adlai: at the risk of abusing terminology:
adlai: carbon monoxide is an acute poison.
adlai: you either fall down dead, keel over unconscious, or recover.
adlai: fwiw, "chemist" is about as specific an "ist" as "physician".
adlai: unless "chemist" is the shop where your physician sends you, after recommending that you ask your own digestive system whether opium is right for you, it is probably about as useful a word as "moron" and "imbecile"... words that originally had statistically precise meanings, arguably still correct in some imaginary database.
thimbronion: adlai: chemist in US does not = pharmacist.
adlai: I am aware of that, and I'm telling you to stop using that word as though it has one unambiguous meaning.
adlai: e.g., "PeterL is a chemist" could mean any one of about a dozen things.
adlai: has a degree? how many? in what exactly?
adlai: "how many erlenmeyers does he shake per day?" is almost extinct, as far as 21st century chemists are concerned.
adlai is a little uncertain what thimbronion meant by "those who work in fabs", although, yes, some of them may have reached that stage in their careers after completing a chemistry undergrad
adlai continues earlier thread:
adlai: "carbon monoxide is an acute poison", as opposed to e.g. lead fumes, that will have a subtle effect not immediately evident
adlai: e.g., also mercury fumes; things that people can and have breathed in trace amounts on a daily basis for decades, and only discovered their harmful effects after much accumulation of gradual poisoning
adlai: trace amounts of carbon monoxide will at worst make you drowsy
adlai: it simply reduces the number of seats available in your circulatory haemoglobin hyperloop
thimbronion: adlai: only symptom was extreme fatigue and yes, drowsiness.
thimbronion: *only symptoms were
adlai: it is rather unlikely to work nasty magic inside your various organs, until it reaches the concentrations where you'll have a noticeable conscious effect; although, biochemistry is the kingdom of uncertainty, and your bet is as good as mine as to whether there's one magic ligand site where a carbon monoxide molecule turns some harmless enzyme into evil incarnate
adlai: carbon monoxide typically just rides around in haemoglobin
adlai: it could gum up a wide variety of the various cellular respiration processes, although it'd need to be in a significant concentration to have noticeable effect
adlai does not have precise values for "significant" here... ask your physician whether Internet is right for you!
thimbronion has read recovery can take weeks, and indeed whatever I'm recovering from has taken weeks to resolve.
adlai: any idea how long you spent marinated in 180ppm ?
thimbronion: adlai: I don't know how long at what levels, only that the peak recorded was approx. 180 ppm. The fireplace has a thermostat, so the levels would have likely been fluctuating a lot.
thimbronion also remembers my daughter being uncharactaristically drowsy during one period of extended use.
adlai: according to wikipedia, CO is apparently also an endogenous signalling molecule; unsurprising, given that it's such a simple molecule.
adlai recommends, at the very least, using active ventilation
adlai: this does reduce heating efficiency. nothing is free.
thimbronion: lekythion status update: Spent time creating an ircbot genesis, began work of integrating lisp ircbot into the search project.
thimbronion: I received an update on gregorynyssa's progress on alethepedia, but will save the details for later.
← 2020-11-21 | 2020-11-24 →