Request for people to write something about their week

I have just read https://www.nla-eclipsweb.com/service/redirector/article/66960399.html?version=1 It’s given me an idea. Could a CO survivor please do something similar about their week for us to put on our website? Perhaps anyone reading this who is interested in our work could do the same? We’d be very interested in hearing from First Call Operators from the gas emergency service too. If you could do this, please send it to me, Stephanie office@co-gassafety.co.uk
Please don’t be put off if you are dyslexic or are damaged by CO – I have two dyslexic sons and am used to helping survivors so could help.
Thank you for reading this and I look forward very much to reading what you send me. It might be best to text/phone me first so I know what to look out for in case it goes into my junk. 07803 088688.

Competition for children – win cash, have fun & learn about carbon monoxide poisoning

All four gas distribution networks run this competition but there is a good article about it that I’ve just read at http://www.aberdareonline.co.uk/news/rhondda-cynon-taff/teaching-children-vital-gas-safety-awareness

This is the competition CO-Gas Safety started but taken to an even better level by the gas distribution networks. Please enter and pass on the word to friends and family.

It is really important to your safety to learn about how to avoid carbon monoxide (CO). The charity doesn’t want to hear about anyone dying or being injured by unintentional carbon monoxide poisoning. Learn how to avoid CO, have fun and raise awareness and maybe win the competition! What you learn doing this will protect your whole family all your life. Do please let us know if from learning about CO, you save your life or the lives of your pets or those of family and friends. We’d love to hear from you. Closing date is 30th September. Stephanie My email is office@co-gassafety.co.uk or you can phone me on 07803 088688.

Sad News of the death of Baroness Maddock

Baroness Maddock, who was our Lib Dem MP when she was an MP and was extremely helpful with regard to landlords’ gas safety checks, very sadly died on the 26th June 2020. CO-Gas Safety would like to send sympathy to her family and friends and express the charity’s thanks for all the work she did for the charity.

As an MP she had insisted that the tenant be served with a gas safety certificate before signing any agreement or entering premises and every 12 months thereafter which CO-Gas Safety completely supported. This was partly the subject of judicial proceedings and the issue described just may go to the Supreme Court because this issue was not fully dealt with in the case of Gas Safety Records and Possession Proceedings: Trecarrell House Limited V Rouncefield [2020] EWCA Civ 760

Pilot of floatplane probably affected by carbon monoxide – 6 dead

Please see https://7news.com.au/news/nsw/aviation-authority-issues-carbon-monoxide-warning-following-crash-investigation-c-1142382 

This floatplane crash happened in 2017 yet it seems that only after all other causes of the crash had been investigated was carbon monoxide poisoning suspected and tested for in March 2020. Why did it take so long?

There is a call for sensors – even small sensors that cost only a couple of ££ (mainly used by pilots of small planes) but of course the aviation industry is stalling. Pilots seem reluctant to buy their own but it’s their lives as well as their passengers so surely it’s worth their while to buy them?

It’s not just CO – there is a “cocktail” of toxic substances making it impossible to nail the health damage down to only one substance. EASA tested 127 substances present. https://www.aerotoxicteam.com/easa-list.html.

Medical testing and info for professionals kindly provided by Bearnairdine Beaumont – she hopes that perhaps some of it will be useful.

https://www.aerotoxicteam.com/medical.html
https://www.aerotoxicteam.com/uploads/6/0/3/8/6038702/med_staff_info_update_2019.pdf
http://www.collegiumramazzini.org/download/2016/fri/RD-2016_PDF_Heutelbeck_Budnik-Baur_28102016.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2Fs3EdspAy7jF2-MkeDA8IZp8J3JYDS0D5SR7LV0B_a4SwgGk1CUpcKxY

Symptoms of CO being confused with Covid-19

Please read https://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/fp/mum-recovering-from-pneumonia-claimed-angus-council-initially-refused-to-fix-gas-because-they-believed-she-had-coronavirus/

Our concern has always been that symptoms of carbon  monoxide (CO) can be confused with symptoms of any virus. The fact that the gas emergency service lacks the equipment to test the air or gas appliances for CO is obviously now even more worrying. We have raised this issue with IGEM and the GDNs who run the gas emergency service.

Due to CO leaving the blood and breath quickly in a survivor, testing a person’s blood or breath for CO can produce the danger of a false negative.

The First Call Operators (FCO) from the gas emergency service do wear Personal Alarm Monitors (PAMs) for CO but when someone calls the gas emergency service s/he is told to turn off the appliances, open the windows and get out. Therefore by the time the FCO arrives the CO will usually have disappeared. So PAMs protect the FCOs, but not the consumers. 

Stephanie has written to IGEM and the GDNs (who run the gas emergency service) about the fact that the lack of testing of the air or the emissions from the gas appliances has always been needed but with Covid-19, testing the environment is even more vital.