There is something uniquely tragic and terrifying about carbon monoxide poisoning. The way it comes on quietly, without warning. How it alters your reality and changes your behavior. The fact that without a carbon monoxide detector, we can’t smell or taste or see or otherwise sense this poisonous gas. Humans have been dealing with the threat of carbon monoxide poisoning since long before we were a species, and only recently have we developed the skills and knowledge to contend with it. In this episode, we get into the details of carbon monoxide poisoning – why it’s deadly, what symptoms look like, and how we manage cases – before delving into the history of our relationship with the gas. How many ghostly apparitions were actually instances of CO poisoning? What maritime mysteries can be explained by the presence of the gas? And where does carbon monoxide poisoning still remain very much an issue today? Tune in for all the details.
| History | Biology |
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| Battley, J. C. S. “Chronic Carbon Monoxide Poisoning.” Canadian Medical Association Journal 19.2 (1928): 157. | Rose, J.J., Wang, L., Xu, Q., McTiernan, C.F., Shiva, S., Tejero, J. and Gladwin, M.T., 2017. Carbon monoxide poisoning: pathogenesis, management, and future directions of therapy. American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine, 195(5), pp.596-606. |
| Bivens, Matt. “Ghost Stories About an Invisible, Oft-Unappreciated Emergency.” Emergency Medicine News 47.7 (2025): 9-10. | Mattiuzzi, C. and Lippi, G., 2020. Worldwide epidemiology of carbon monoxide poisoning. Human & experimental toxicology, 39(4), pp.387-392. |
| Burton, Catherine. “Risking life and wing: Victorian and Edwardian conceptions of coal-mine canaries.” Victorian Review 40.2 (2014): 143-159. | Raub, J.A. and Benignus, V.A., 2002. Carbon monoxide and the nervous system. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 26(8), pp.925-940. |
| Cooper, Anna Grossman. “Carbon Monoxide, A Bibliography With Abstracts.” (1966). | World Health Organization, 2010. WHO guidelines for indoor air quality: selected pollutants. World Health Organization. Regional Office for Europe. |
| Dagnall, Neil, et al. “Things That go bump in the literature: An environmental appraisal of “haunted houses”.” Frontiers in Psychology 11 (2020): 1328. | Raub, J.A., Mathieu-Nolf, M., Hampson, N.B. and Thom, S.R., 2000. Carbon monoxide poisoning—a public health perspective. Toxicology, 145(1), pp.1-14. |
| Davies, Ivor J. “Carbon monoxide poisoning in the senghenydd explosion.” (1914): 49-68. | Kinoshita, H., Türkan, H., Vucinic, S., Naqvi, S., Bedair, R., Rezaee, R. and Tsatsakis, A., 2020. Carbon monoxide poisoning. Toxicology reports, 7, pp.169-173. |
| Gordon, Eleanora C. “The fate of Sir Hugh Willoughby and his companions: A new conjecture.” Geographical Journal (1986): 243-247. | Motterlini, R. and Otterbein, L.E., 2010. The therapeutic potential of carbon monoxide. Nature reviews Drug discovery, 9(9), pp.728-743. |
| Guarnieri, Michael. “Cave painting hazard?.” Science 283.5410 (1999): 2017-2017. | EPA updated July 15, 2026: Carbon monoxide’s impact on indoor air quality: https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq/carbon-monoxides-impact-indoor-air-quality and OSHA FactSheet Carbon Monoxide poisoning https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/publications/CARBONMONOXIDE-FACTSHEET.pdf |
| Hopper, Christopher P., et al. “A brief history of carbon monoxide and its therapeutic origins.” Nitric Oxide 111 (2021): 45-63. | Bauer, N., Mao, Q., Vashistha, A., Seshadri, A., Nancy Du, Y.C., Otterbein, L., Tan, C., de Caestecker, M.P. and Wang, B., 2025. Compelling evidence: a critical update on the therapeutic potential of carbon monoxide. Medicinal Research Reviews, 45(4), pp.1275-1301. |
| Kashfi, Khosrow, and Kush K. Patel. “Carbon monoxide and its role in human physiology: A brief historical perspective.” Biochemical pharmacology 204 (2022): 115230. | |
| Megas, Ioannis-Fivos, Justus P. Beier, and Gerrit Grieb. “The history of carbon monoxide intoxication.” Medicina 57.5 (2021): 400. | |
| Pollock, Christal. “The canary in the coal mine.” Journal of Avian Medicine and Surgery 30.4 (2016): 386-391. | |
| Rutherfurd, W. J. “CARBON-MONOXIDE POISONING IN WARFARE.” The Lancet 195.5030 (1920): 184-188. | |
| Schneider Jr, Franz. “An Investigation of a” Haunted” House.” Science 37.958 (1913): 711-712. | |
| Svanberg, Ingvar. “The domestication and cultural significance of the canary.” The Canary. Academic Press, 2024. 47-81. | |
| Weaver, Lindell K. “Carbon monoxide poisoning.” New England Journal of Medicine 360.12 (2009): 1217-1225. | |
| Wilmer, W. H. “Effects of carbon monoxid upon the eye.” American Journal of Ophthalmology 4.2 (1921): 73-90. | |
| https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/34l7vo/ma_postit_notes_left_in_apartment/ | |
| https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/34m92h/update_ma_postit_notes_left_in_apartment/ |
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