Final answer:
The half-life of a substance is the time required for half of it to decay or be eliminated. For carbon monoxide in the body, the half-life can be reduced from 320 to 80 minutes with oxygen therapy. It is a crucial concept in fields like medicine, environmental science, and archaeology.
Step-by-step explanation:
The half-life of a substance is the time required for half the quantity of the substance to undergo a process of decay. In the context of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning, the half-life refers to the time it takes for half of the carbon monoxide bound to hemoglobin (forming carboxyhemoglobin) to be released, allowing the hemoglobin to again bind oxygen and carry it to body tissues.
Administering oxygen via a non-rebreather mask can reduce the half-life of carbon monoxide in the human body from 320 minutes to 80 minutes. This medical intervention accelerates the dissociation of carbon monoxide from carboxyhemoglobin, which is critical for the treatment of CO poisoning.
As an example of half-life in radioactive decay, cobalt-60, a radioactive isotope, has a half-life of 5.27 years, meaning that after 5.27 years, only 50% of an initial amount of cobalt-60 would remain due to its radioactive decay.
Scientifically, half-life calculations are essential in various fields, including medicine, for understanding pharmacokinetics, as well as in environmental studies and archaeology, such as using radioactive carbon-14 dating to estimate the age of artifacts.