combines with water to form carbonic acid. The
carbonic acid then dissassociates into HCO
and [H
].
About 15 thousand millemoles of CO
are produced per day.
This corresponds to 10 millemoles of CO
per minute. The
lung can remove CO
at a rate of 10-15 mmol per minute, so
that potential 10 millemoles of acid that could be created from
CO
per minute are easily eliminated. In contrast the kidney
can only secrete 0.4 millemoles per minute of [H
] under
optimal conditions.