Carbon Monoxide Alarms Save Lives
Carbon Monoxide (CO) is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless toxic
gas. It is not to be confused with Carbon Dioxide (CO2), which is
believed to be the principal agent causing global warming. The
presence of CO in the air you breathe reduces your blood's capacity to
carry oxygen.
CO
poisoning occurs when CO is present in high concentrations.
Symptoms are headaches, nausea, dizziness, burning eyes, confusion,
and drowsiness. In higher concentrations, people lose consciousness,
experience brain damage, and die.
The average CO background level in our homes is .5 ppm (parts per
million) to 5 ppm. Chimney fire exhaust contains 5,000 ppm. If the air
you breathe contains 6,400 ppm, you will die in less than 20
minutes.
CO is produced because of incomplete combustion of fuels like
propane, heating oil, coal, charcoal, natural gas, wood or gasoline.
Easy precautions are; 1) Don't run you car in the garage with the door
closed. 2) Don't run a gas generator in the garage with the door
closed. 3) Leave gas BBQ's outside. 4) Don't use kerosene or propane
heaters inside. 5) If your fireplace is back drafting smoke into the
house, open all the windows. However, even gas burning furnaces, water
heaters, fireplace inserts and oven/ranges can produce CO if they're
malfunctioning.
In
the US, 113,000 people are treated for CO poisoning each year.
That's an average of once every five minutes. Fortunately only
about 2,000
people a year die from this (that's still more than 5 a day) and of
them
only 80
die from malfunctioning home appliances.
CO alarms are fairly
cheap ($25
to $110) but ensure they adhere to the Underwriters
Laboratories (UL)
2034 standard for CO detectors. Some plug in. Some run on
batteries.
Install your CO alarm(s) near where you sleep, as that is when you
are least likely to notice the symptoms. CO is only slightly lighter
than air, so it won't necessarily rise. Put your alarms in areas of
good air flow or on the wall at nostril height. Keep them high enough
so small children and pets don't trash them.
But most importantly, get them. I don't want you to be a statistic
in a future article.
|
