Carbon monoxide poisoning can sneak up on you without you knowing it.
Carbon monoxide detectors are now readily available for home use as part of a growing effort to reduce the number of carbon monoxide poisonings.
Earlier this month, most of us set our clocks back 1 hour to coincide with the end of Daylight Saving Time. And fire and safety officials typically use this occasion to remind us that it’s also good to replace batteries on smoke detectors and make certain alarms are working properly.
Carbon monoxide detectors are now added to that annual check.
Carbon monoxide will accumulate in enclosed spaces.
About half of all states in the US now require carbon monoxide detectors in homes and other residential buildings. Many of those laws were just put on the books this year.
Carbon monoxide kills more than 400 people in the US each year. Those asleep or intoxicated when breathing this deadly gas experience no symptoms.
Short of death, poisoning from carbon monoxide — found in the fumes of furnaces, cars, portable generators, gas ranges, and wood burning fireplaces — can cause headaches, nausea, dizziness, chest pains, confusion and loss of consciousness. Carbon monoxide is odorless and invisible. It’s produced any time a fossil fuel is burned. To avoid breathing the poisonous gas, fumes need to be properly ventilated so they don’t accumulate in closed spaces, such as your home or car.
Carbon monoxide is so dangerous because when present in the air, it’s inhaled more readily than oxygen. If there’s a lot of it, as in the case of a poorly ventilated gas furnace or other fumes, each breadth will replace oxygen in the blood with carbon monoxide. A lack of oxygen in the blood can result in tissue damage and death. Fatalities are highest among the elderly, but it also accounts for more than 20,000 non-fatal emergency room visits each year.
Learn of your state’s requirements for carbon monoxide detectors and about how to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning.
taintedair 