Trace the pathway a single carbon atom may follow as it goes from a fossil fuel to becoming a part of the air a human exhales.
by 
Anonymous
ANSWERS: 4
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If you want to have it short: You're a hopeless alcoholic, carousing on lighter fuel, which gives you bad breath. End of story.
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Its a miniscule path of destruction.
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Briefly. Air is inhaled through the mouth, travels down the trachea into the bronchial tubes is absorbed by the alveoli. The aveoli then exchanges the O with haemoglobin in the blood. The blood then takes the oxygenated haemoglobin around the body to tissues organs etc via the arteries. The O is exchanged with the cell where it is metabolised by the cell forming the waste products, water and CO2. The water is absorbed into the body whether it is by the cell or in the blood stream, when there is excess water it is carried by the blood to the kidneys which removes it and stores it in the bladder until you go to the toilet to pass urine. The CO2 recombines with the Haemoglobin in the blood where it is transported in the veins back to the lungs. Where it is exchanged in the alvaoli back to a gas and is exhaled via the bronchial tubes trachea and eventually out the mouth. I am a chemist not a biologist, so I am not intimate with the human body, this is just general knowledge that I have pick up over time. I also don't know the level of detail you require. But it should give you a good starting point to start the investigation
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Carbon is released from fossil fuels by combustion that oxidizes the carbon it contains, producing carbon dioxide (and other things, like water vapor). Burning fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum products, and natural gas releases carbon that has been stored in the geosphere for millions of years. Burning biofuels also releases carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is part of the air that we breathe. In 1850, atmospheric carbon dioxide was about 280 parts per million (ppm), and today it is about 385 ppm. This increase is believed to be due to the burning of wood and fossil fuels and the destruction of forests to make way for farmland and pasture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_cycle
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