Learning the Danger of Smoke Smoke is a term that many people loosely use to describe multiple chemical and particle compounds that are given off when materials or items are heated to the point of ignition or heated to a sufficient temperature to change the chemical makeup of that material. Smoke, therefore is the release of the base components of whatever material is being heated and is often extremely dangerous and volatile. When a campfire burns, popping, cracking and scorching dried wood, some persons may think that it is because the wood itself is being burned. Bu the truth is that fire works by heating an item, like wood, to a temperature that changes its chemical or componential makeup and then releases those chemicals into the air and igniting. It is the smoke, then, that is burning in a camp fire and not the wood. While the dried wood is scorched through heat and is fundamentally changed by the introduction of that intense heat, the actual fire that is seen is the ignition of very flammable aspects and particulates in the smoke produced by the intense heat. With the added knowledge that it is the smoke of a fire that produces the real flames, it is not hard to understand why the inhalation of smoke can be extremely detrimental to human health and is often the cause of fire related deaths. Smoke is the byproduct of heated and chemically changing materials and therefore has included in it extremely harmful chemicals, gases and particulates.
Toxic Smoke Of the many highly toxic materials found in smoke, perhaps the most dangerous and most prevalent is the presence of deadly carbon monoxide gases. Carbon monoxide gases are extremely poisonous for most living things including humans and are considered to be the leading cause of injury and death incurred through fire. Because carbon monoxide is found in almost every form of smoke produced by fire it is commonly the main poison inhaled by victims of a fire. The introduction of carbon monoxide into human body interferes with the flow of oxygen as well as causing reactions due to the poison, both of which quickly lead to the incapacitation of the individual inhaling the smoke by making them suffer a loss of consciousness. Additionally, when gaseous sulfur oxides found in smoke come into contact with moisture then they will form sulfuric acids. These sulfuric acids are extremely corrosive to materials as well as to the human lung and can therefore cause significant and in some cases fatal damage.
Smoke Dangers But the dangers of smoke do not only come from common house or wild fires. Smoke is dangerous in all of its forms and with the increasing use of electrosurgical tools during surgery that danger is extending into the operating room. To combat these dangers from bio-medically induced smoke, businesses are developing and improving upon smoke evacuation machines and ventilation equipment. Smoke evacuation machines are used during the course of an electrosurgical procedure to protect the medical staff as well as the patient being operated on from the harmful and damaging aspects of smoke that results from the operating procedure. The awareness and precautions taken against the inhalation of smoke in all its forms is proving to be extremely beneficial to peoples in all situations. Its dangers and hazards need to be continually guarded against.