The harmful compound, Carbon Monoxide, is formed when two harmless non-metal elements, Oxygen (O) and Carbon(C) go through the process of covalent bonding.
Oxygen
Oxygen gas is the second most common component of the Earth's atmosphere, taking up 21.0% of its volume and 23.1% of its mass. It is not only harmless, but essential for our survival on earth.
Carbon
Carbon is essential to all known living systems, and without it life as we know it could not exist.
The major economic use of carbon other than food and wood is in the form of hydrocarbons, most notably crude oil, which is also known as petroleum. On its own, carbon is not very dangerous, since it is nontoxic and nonreactive, so in a way, it's also harmless.
Carbon Monoxide
Carbon monoxide is a poisonous, harmful, colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas. Although it has no detectable odor, CO is often mixed with other gases that do have an odor. So, you can inhale carbon monoxide right along with gases that you can smell and not even know that CO is present.
Carbon monoxide is harmful when breathed because it displaces oxygen in the blood and deprives the heart, brain, and other vital organs of oxygen. Large amounts of CO can overcome you in minutes without warning,causing you to lose consciousness and suffocate.
Dot and Cross diagram
Sources
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-carbon.htm
http://www.osha.gov/OshDoc/data_General_Facts/carbonmonoxide-factsheet.pdf
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081006001327AAHRCOq
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon
Done by: Loh Jia Sheng (24) 2A2
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