I have a friend who is a union plumber. He just took his refresher course (I don't know what there regular courses are called). The fellow who taught the course specialized in carbon monoxide awareness. Talked extensively about CO in the home, about typical sources and a lot about industry and government collaborating to keep the public uninformed.

I learned that gas stoves are notorious for being real CO sources; that in use are produce far more CO than shows up on the specs. (The flame is tested with no pan. That pan cools the flame down into a much less efficient temp and hence far more CO produced.) I have noticed lingering very low level headaches after cooking with the gas stove I've had since July.) The instructor also pointed out several CO facts I learned years ago; that CO attaches far more readily to our hemoglobin than oxygen does and does not release when the cell returns to the lungs. In fact, it takes about 4 hours for the CO to detach from the hemoglobin. Another very sobering tidbit: Readily available and up-to-code CO alarms are programmed to not respond to spikes and only go off ofter long exposure. The industry joke is the the alarm is to warn the rescuer that CO killed the victim and that he needs to take precautions.

So my question is: are there any studies documenting loss of athletic performance, VO2 max and the like from CO exposure?

Ben