section_path: Biological role/Toxicity/Outdoor areas with elevated concentrations
section_name: Outdoor areas with elevated concentrations
paragraph_text: Outdoor areas with elevated concentrations
  
  Local concentrations of carbon dioxide can reach high values near strong sources, especially those that are isolated by surrounding terrain. At the Bossoleto hot spring near Rapolano Terme in Tuscany, Italy, situated in a bowl-shaped depression about 100 m (330 ft) in diameter, concentrations of CO rise to above 75% overnight, sufficient to kill insects and small animals. After sunrise the gas is dispersed by convection. High concentrations of CO produced by disturbance of deep lake water saturated with CO are thought to have caused 37 fatalities at Lake Monoun, Cameroon in 1984 and 1700 casualties at Lake Nyos, Cameroon in 1986.