Carbon monoxide information for Atherton residents...

Atherton Gas Safe

Working in the gas detection industry, I hear of many cases where people have died due to the effects carbon monoxide (CO) poisioning. So I cannot stress the importance of getting the gas appliances in your house or workplace serviced by a registered member of Gas Safe.

Obviously with the weather getting so much colder, people are using their heating appliances more which could result in carbon monoxide related incidents. This toxic gas can be emitted by any faulty fuel burning appliance and is caused by incomplete combustion. So for example, if you had a portable gas fire burning in a non-ventilated room, the oxygen in the room would gradually be used up and replaced by carbon dioxide (CO₂).

Seeing as the fire needs a supply of oxygen to burn properly, which has now been replaced by carbon dioxide, incomplete combustion starts to happen and carbon monoxide is expelled from the fire. The thing that makes this gas so deadly is that it has no smell, no taste and no colour. Also, the early symptoms of CO poisoning can be the same as those associated with colds or other ailments. A headache is one of the first signs - this quickly increases to feeling tired, nauseous, dizzy and faint. So you could quite easily curl up in front of your fire without knowing that it's expelling CO. You then feel tired, so fall asleep and never wake up. According to figures from the carbon monoxide and gas safety website, between September 1995 and August 2007, 558 deaths were caused by accidental carbon monoxide poisoning, with 3772 near misses. 2003 of these required hospital treatment of which 346 had lost consciousness.

How does carbon monoxide poison the body?

When you normally breathe in air, oxygen is absorbed by the lungs. More specifically, the molecules of oxygen become attached to the haemoglobin in your blood and are then transported round the body to supply the organs. When carbon monoxide is inhaled, it replaces the oxygen and without oxgen the organs in the body can't function correctly. You're in effect suffocating. It makes blood vessels become leaky, which can lead to swelling in the brain.

Spotting the signs of carbon monoxide poisoning

Some of the warning signs to look out for include:

Other people or pets around you suffer the same symptoms
The symptoms disappear when out of the house
(This one isn't so easy) Your symptoms are seasonal i.e. winter when your heatings' turned on.

Ways to protect against carbon monoxide poisoning

Get any chimneys swept regularly
Don't block up ventilation. It's there for a reason.
Have your gas appliances serviced annually by a registered heating engineer. Up until April 2009 it was Corgi registered but this was replaced by Gas Safe. Now an engineer must, by law, be Gas Safe registered to carry out work on gas installations in the home. If in doubt, ask for their card and check.
Install a carbon monoxide alarm
Don't run petrol engines etc inside or without the proper ventilation

So to make an understatement, carbon monoxide poisoning is very bad. In the course of my job, I once somehow managed to inhale carbon monoxide and can confirm that it's effects would be impossible to escape, even if you took one large breath of a high enough concentration. I only had a very low dose of it and immediately felt light headed and unsteady on my feet. A list of local registered engineers can be found here.

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