Sleeping in a car with the air conditioner on: Very dangerous!

The Commander-in-Chief of the Civil Defense Forces in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has released a warning clip showing the dangers of sleeping in a car with the air conditioning on, especially if parked in enclosed places such as garages and other places, according to ArabicaWeather.com - a Middle East weather forecast website.

This danger occurs due to inhalation of carbon monoxide (CO), which is strongly activated when the car's air conditioner is turned on while parked, because this dangerous gas causes the sleeper to fall into a deep sleep, then coma and death within a maximum of 45 minutes.

Toxicology experts at the Dubai Police (UAE) General Department of Forensic Evidence and Criminology have described how some people who cannot bear to sleep in their cars close all the windows and turn on the air conditioning, a slow suicide process that leads to suffocation and death in less than an hour.

Toxicologists stress that both new and old cars cause this condition. However, in old cars, the risk of suffocation is higher, because the fuel is not burned completely due to inefficient engines and inadequate ventilation. Therefore, air is sucked out through the air conditioning system, and this leads to suffocation and death.

What increases the danger of this gas is that it is colorless, odorless, tasteless and easily penetrates the lungs and the alveoli absorb it faster than they absorb oxygen. This causes the tissues to not receive the necessary amount of oxygen, leading to poisoning and suffocation.

The severity and type of symptoms depend on the concentration of CO gas inhaled, according to ArabicaWeather.com.