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| Carbon
Monoxide Risks at Home
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| Recently, public attention has
focused on the risk of carbon monoxide (or CO) poisoning
in the home. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)
prepared information to help people protect themselves
and their families against CO poisoning.
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| What Is Carbon
Monoxide?
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Carbon monoxide is an
invisible, odorless, colorless gas created when fossil
fuels (such as gasoline, wood, coal, propane, oil and
methane) burn incompletely. In the home, heating and
cooking equipment are possible sources of carbon
monoxide. Vehicles running in an attached garage could
also produce dangerous levels of carbon monoxide.
However, consumers can
protect themselves against CO poisoning by maintaining,
using, and venting heating and cooking equipment and by
being cautious when using vehicles in attached garages.
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| What is the
effect of exposure to CO?
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CO replaces oxygen in the
bloodstream, eventually causing suffocation. Mild CO
poisoning feels like the flu, but more serious poisoning
leads to difficulty breathing and even death.
Just how sick people get
from CO exposure varies greatly from person to person,
depending on age, overall health, the concentration of
the exposure (measured in parts per million), and the
length of exposure. Higher concentrations are dangerous
even for a short time.
When carbon monoxide
replaces oxygen in the blood, a condition known as
carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) saturation results.
Carboxyhemoglobin levels do not consider the length of
exposure. As more and more carbon monoxide accumulates
in the blood, the percentage of COHb gets higher and
higher and people get sicker and sicker. |
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| What is your
risk of CO poisoning?
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Deaths from unintentional carbon
monoxide poisoning about 700 in 1993, according to the
National Safety Council are fairly rare. Three of every
five of these deaths typically involve vehicles, one of
every five typically involves heating or cooking
equipment, and the other one of every five typically
involves other or unspecified causes.*
In fact, deaths from unintentional
carbon monoxide poisoning have dropped sharply in recent
years, thanks to lower CO emissions from automobiles and
safer heating and cooking appliances.* Deaths from
"smoke inhalation" (largely carbon monoxide)
in fires and suicides involving CO are far more common
causes of gas-related suffocation deaths in home.
Published estimates on the role of CO in home fire
deaths vary widely.
According to the NFPA, there were
242 CO-related non-fire deaths attributed to heating and
cooking equipment in 1991.** The leading specific types
of equipment were:
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- Gas-fueled space heaters (69
deaths)
- Gas-fueled furnaces (52 deaths)
- Charcoal grills (36 deaths)
- Gas-fueled ranges (23 deaths)
- Portable kerosene heaters (23
deaths)
- Wood stoves (13 deaths)
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As with fire deaths, the risk of
unintentional CO death is highest for the very young
(ages 4 or under) and the very old (ages 75 or above).
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| How can you
protect yourself from CO poisoning?
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The best defenses against CO
poisoning are safe use of vehicles (particularly in
attached garages) and proper installation, use and
maintenance of household cooking and heating equipment.
You may also want to install CO
detectors inside your home to provide early warning of
accumulating carbon monoxide. However, a CO detector is
no substitute for safe use and maintenance of heating
and cooking equipment.
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| Safety
Tips: |
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- If you need to warm up a
vehicle, remove it from the garage immediately after
starting the ignition. Do not run a vehicle or other
fueled engine or motor indoors, even if garage doors
are open.
- CO from a running vehicle
inside an attached garage can get inside the house,
even with the garage door open. Normal circulation
does not provide enough fresh air to reliably
prevent dangerous accumulations inside.
- Have your vehicle inspected for
exhaust leaks, if you have any symptoms of CO
poisoning.
- Have fuel burning household
heating equipment (fireplaces, furnaces, water
heaters, wood stoves, and space or portable heaters)
checked every year before cold weather sets in. All
chimneys and chimney connectors should be evaluated
for proper installation, cracks, blockages or leaks.
Make needed repairs before using the equipment.
- Before enclosing central
heating equipment in a smaller room, check with your
fuel supplier to ensure that air for proper
combustion is provided.
- When using a fireplace, open
the flue for adequate ventilation.
- Kerosene heaters are illegal in
many states. Always check with local authorities
before buying or using one. Open a window slightly
whenever using a kerosene heater. Refuel outside,
after the device has cooled.
- Always use barbecue grills
which can produce carbon monoxide outside. Never use
them in the home or garage.
- When purchasing new heating and
cooking equipment, select factory built products
approved by an independent testing laboratory. Do
not accept damaged equipment. Hire a qualified
technician (usually employed by the local oil or gas
company) to install the equipment. Ask about and
insist that the technician follow applicable fire
safety and local building codes.
- If you purchase an existing
home have a qualified technician evaluate the
integrity of the heating and cooking systems, as
well as the sealed spaces between the garage and
house.
- When camping, remember to use
battery powered heaters and flashlights in tents,
trailers and motor homes. Using fossil fuels inside
these structures is extremely dangerous. NFPA 501,
Standard on Recreational Vehicles, requires the
installation of CO detector in recreational
vehicles.
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What are CO
detectors?
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| Household carbon monoxide
detectors measure how much CO has accumulated.
Currently, CO detectors sound an alarm when the
concentration of CO in the air corresponds to 10%
carboxyhemoglobin level in the blood. Since 10% COHb is
at the very low end of CO poisoning, the alarm may sound
before people feel particularly sick.
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| What causes CO
detector nuisance alarms?
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| Pollution and atmospheric
conditions in some areas cause low levels of CO to be
present for long periods of time. In fact, these
"background" conditions may increase the COHb
level to over 10%, causing CO detectors to alarm even
though conditions inside the home are not truly
hazardous.
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- Treat all CO detector alarms as
real, until it has been verified that there is no
threat from equipment inside the dwelling.
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If you buy CO
detectors:
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What to do if your
CO detector alarms:
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| If anyone shows signs of CO
poisoning: Have everyone leave the building right away.
Leave doors open as you go.
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- Use a neighbor's telephone to
report the CO alarm, following the instructions you
received from the fire department when you bought
the detector.
- Get immediate medical
attention.
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If no one has symptoms of CO
poisoning: Open windows and doors, shut down heating and
cooking equipment, and call a qualified technician to
inspect all equipment.
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- Be on the lookout for any
symptoms of CO poisoning.
- Follow the steps above if
symptoms appear.
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Safety
Checklist
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- Carbon monoxide detectors, are
not substitutes for smoke detectors. Smoke detectors
react to fire by products, before CO detectors would
alarm. Smoke detectors give earlier warning of a
fire, providing more time to escape.
- To guard against smoke and
fire, be sure that your home has working smoke
detectors on every level and just outside of all
sleeping areas.
- Know the difference between the
sound of the smoke detectors and the sound of the
carbon monoxide detector.
Have a home evacuation plan for any home emergency
and practice the plan with all members of the
household.
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