Since there’s little blood in the eyes, does carbon monoxide from, say, campfire smoke, have little effect on the eyes? The eyeball surface is not permeable? Or does it actually absorb vapors, etc?
I don’t know if its the carbon monoxide or something else in it, but if the smoke blows in your face, it will make your eyes water and burn.
The eyes are quite nicely supplied with blood, save for the corneas.
As for the corneas, they get their oxygen not so much from blood (since blood vessels would keep the corneas from being transparent) but from the air.
Smoke definitely affects the eyes. Carbon monoxide probably wouldn’t affect the corneas much because they lack blood, and hence hemoglobin, which is what CO bonds to, displacing oxygen.
Not sure exactly what’s being asked here, I must admit.
CO is a gas, not a vapor. Campfire smoke is a smorgasbord of chemicals and compounds and fine particulate matter, so it’s very irritating to the eyes. CO is dangerous because when inhaled, it binds to hemoglobin (in red blood cells in the pulmonary capillaries) very easily and strongly, so it displaces the oxygen hemoglobin is supposed to carry. There is no way you could absorb enough CO through the surface of your eye to cause poisoning. I doubt external exposure to CO has any effect on the eyes, but to be honest about it, I’ve never given it a thought. I treated many people with CO poisoning when I worked as a respiratory therapist.