The Air We Breathe

Oxygen is the most abundant element on earth The earths crust is rich in carbonate and sili cate rocks the oceans are almost entirely water and oxygen constitutes almost one fifth of the air we breathe Carbon ranks only fourteenth among the elements in natural abundance but trails only hydro gen and oxygen in its abundance in the human body It IS the chemical properties of carbon that make it uniquely suitable as the raw material forthe building blocks of life Let s find out more about those chemi cal properties... 

What has become an even greater concern in recent years is the phenomenon known as multiple chemical sensitivity disorder triggered by exposures to many chemicals in the environment. Synthetic chemicals are all around us. They are in the products we use, in the clothes we wear, in the food we eat, in the air we breathe at work. Because chemicals are everywhere in the environment, it is not possible to escape exposure. For this reason many people have become sensitized to the chemicals around them. In fact, it is estimated that 15% of the population has become sensitized to common household and commercial products. For some people the sensitization is not too serious a problem. They may have what appears to be a minor allergy to one or more chemicals. Other people are much more seriously affected. They may feel tired all the time, and suffer from mental confusion, breathing problems, sore muscles, and a weakened immune system. Such people suffer from a condition known as Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS). 

Narcosis Narcosis is a state of deep stupor or unconsciousness, produced by a chemical substance, such as a drug or anesthesia. Inhalation of certain chemicals can lead to narcosis. For example, diethyl ether and chloroform, two common organic solvents, were among the first examples of anesthesia known. Many other chemicals that you would not suspect can also cause narcosis. For example, even though nitrogen gas comprises 80% of the air we breathe and is considered chemically inert (unreactive) it can cause narcosis under certain conditions. Always work with adequate inhalation and avoid inhaling chemical fumes, mists, dusts etc. whenever possible. Use fume hoods and respirators as necessary. 

Small, portable sensors are now available to monitor the air we breathe for such toxins as carbon monoxide, CO. As soon as the air contains more than a critical concentration of CO, the sensor alerts the householder, who then opens a window or identifies the source of the gas. 

The situation is the same with the air we breathe. We need oxygen, and so cannot avoid nitrogen, carbon dioxide and several other naturally occurring gases. We are also inhaling with every breath a variety of naturally occurring and industrial chemicals that are either... 

Because benzene is a constitute of gasoline and some other fuels, and because it is so volatile, virtually all of us are exposed, almost continuously, to a certain level in the air we breathe. In some cases, because of fuel leaks and spills, ground waters and surface waters have become contaminated with benzene. What can be said about the threats to health, if any, we all face from these relatively low levels of exposure through our environment ... 

In its natural gaseous state, nitrogen is a relatively inert diatomic molecule (N ) that is colorless, odorless, and tasteless, yet it is responsible for hundreds of active compounds. It makes up about 78% of the air we breathe. We are constantly taking it into our lungs with no stimulation or sensation therefore, we really do not detect its presence. When hquefied, it is still colorless and odorless and resembles water in density. The melting point of nitrogen is -209.86°C, its boihng point is —195.8°C, and its density as a gas is 0.0012506 g/cm. ... 

About this time Priestley visited Paris, saw Lavoisier, and told him of the new "air" he had obtained by heating calcined mercury. Lavoisier saw the great importance of Priestley s discovery he repeated Priestley s experiment, and concluded that the air, or gas, which he refers to in his Laboratory Journal as "fair dephlogistique de M. Priestley" was nothing else than the purest portion of the air we breathe. He prepared this "air" and burned various substances in it. Finding that very many of the products of these combustions had the properties of acids, he gave to the new "air" the name oxygen, which means the acid-producer. 

J. J. Thompson, discoverer of the electron, adhered to the belief in the existence of the ether, which is as essential to our lives as the air we breathe, long after this concept was disproved. 

It can be shown that the oxygen we breathe combines with carbon (from our food) to make carbon dioxide by a natural process of oxidation. Lime water" is normally clear, but turns cloudy when carbon dioxide is passed through it. The air around us contains only a trace of carbon dioxide, and so does not cause lime water to change color. But the air we breathe out, when bubbled through lime water, will turn it milky, because of the carbon dioxide present. 

Only a small portion of matter consists of elements in uncombined atomic states. Hydrogen, which comprises over 90% of the universe, exists as molecular hydrogen, Likewise, the nitrogen and oxygen in the air we breath exist as the diatomic molecules and O. Practically all substances consist of aggregates of atoms in the form of compounds and molecules. The fact that matter exists as combinations of atoms leads naturally to several basic questions ... 

S common misconception is that radioactivity is new in the environment, but it has been around far longer than the human race. It is as much a part of our environment as the sun and the rain. It has always occurred in the soil we walk on and in the air we breathe, and it warms the interior of Earth and makes it molten. The energy released by radioactive substances in Earth s interior heats the water that spurts from a geyser and the water that wells up from a natural hot spring. 

The average concentration of mercury atoms in the air we breath is about r.6 nanograms per cubic meter.This is an extremely low concentration and poses no dis-cernable health risks. (Mercury is dangerous to us only because of its ability to bioaccumulate in the fish we may eat.) Atoms are so small,... 

Kennedy, I.R. Acid Soil and Acid Rain Research Studies in Botany and Relate Applied Fields, 2nd Edition, John Wiley Sons, Inc., New York, NY, 1992. Koenig, J.Q. Health Effects of Ambient Air Pollution How Safe Is the Air We Breathe Kluwer Academic Publisher s, Norvell, MA, 2000,... 

It was not until the discovery of carbon dioxide that a means of stabilising a non-alcoholic drink became attainable. During the eighteenth century there had been great developments in the discovery of gases and the composition of the air we breathe. Effervescing spa waters and natural mineral waters, with their health-benefit connotations, had been taken for some time, and great scientific... 

THE PERILS OF OXYGEN Your mother s advice about eating healthy has a deeper story behind it. The food we eat must be metabolized, a process that requires the oxygen in the air we breathe. Unfortunately, our most basic acts of survival, breathing and eating, are what age our bodies and our brains. If this sounds like the proverbial damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don t scenario, well, it sort of is, and yet somehow our species has managed to survive this challenge for several hundred millennia. 

Chlorobenzene enters your body when you breathe in air containing it, when you drink water or eat food containing it, or when it comes in contact with your skin. Human exposure to contaminated water could occur near hazardous waste sites where chlorobenzene is present. Significant exposure to chlorobenzene is not expected to occur by getting chlorobenzene contaminated soil on your skin. When chlorobenzene enters your body, most of it is expelled from your lungs in the air we breathe out and in urine. Additional information is presented in Chapter 2. 

But there are signs that simpler, less expensive LC/MS systems designed and priced for the general laboratory bench chemist, production facilities, and quality control laboratories may soon be possible. It remains to seen whether manufacturers will decide to produce these systems. Older MS systems have been purchased, attached to HPLC systems equipped with relatively inexpensive interfaces, and pressed into service for molecular weight determination as a 30,000 detector, indicating that the desire and need exists for general laboratory LC/MS systems. As prices continue to drop and technology advances work their way out of the research laboratories, the LC/MS will become a major tool for the forensic chemist whose separations must stand up in court, for the clinical chemist whose separations impact life and death, and for the food and environmental chemist whose efforts affect the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe. 

All the things we see and feel, even the air we breathe are altogether known as material. Through centuries of scientific investigation we have come to know and understand that all material is composed of atoms and atoms are in turn made up of nucleus and electrons. The number of electrons surrounding the nucleus defined as atomic number dictates the characteristic of that atom. There are more than 100 different types of atoms on earth and they are systematically arranged in Mendeleeve s chart, or known as the PERIODIC CHART OF THE ATOMS. ... 

The world of fluids is complicated yet very fascinating. Fluids are all around us from the air we breathe, to the water we drink, to the blood that flows through our bodies. Fluids make many things possible including air travel, drug delivery to a patient, and life itself. Thus, a fundamental and thorough understanding of fluids is vital to a nurse anesthetist. 

Our ENVIRONMENT exposes us daily to a wide variety of xenobiotics in our food, in the air we breathe, or as a result of industrial exposure and toxic wastes. However, despite this exposure, most of us are living long, healthy lives. Certainly individual variation could account for some of the variability in resistance to disease, but other factors are undoubtedly involved. According to a growing body of evidence, diet may be extremely important in increasing resistance to chronic disease. One is tempted to speculate, or hope, that improved dietary habits could improve individual resistance to chemically induced chronic disease. 

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