CO Gas Safety

CO-Gas thinks it’s outrageous that recommendations made by the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) in 2000 have not been implemented, particularly:-

A modest levy on the gas suppliers (we would prefer the who fuel industry) to provide funds for publicity about the dangers of Carbon Monoxide (CO) and for research. After all most of the gas supply companies are extremely wealthy. CO-Gas Safety has sat on committees to talk about raising publicity since 1997. The problem is the lack of funds, which the wealthy industry fails to provide and the government fails to make a levy mandatory. Please note that £2 per household per year would provide over £22 million to spend on prime time TV warnings and fund research. The BBC receives £140 per household per year!
That the gas emergency service (which has a duty to make safe from gas and also from CO) has and will use equipment to test for this invisible, silent, odourless, deadly gas, CO. This would enable people to know which appliance, if any is unsafe and how much CO they are likely to have been exposed to.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) told us in April 2005 that these recommendations will not now be implemented.

The latest review just published January 2007 and decision by the Health and Safety Commissioners puts all responsibility for raising awareness on CORGI or a CORGI equivalent by requiring interested bodies such as CORGI to apply for a 5 year franchise to register gas installers. See http://www.hse.gov.uk/gas/domestic/safetyreview.htm The registering body is now The Gas Safe Register run by Capita,

CO-Gas Safety finds it indefensible that a person who suspects they are being, or have been recently poisoned by CO has no way of obtaining an investigation of appliances in the home or workplace (which will test for CO and may help with medical treatment and/or provide evidence in civil or criminal case) other than by paying about £1,800. How can ordinary people pay for this especially one parent families and those social security? Even if they can pay, most people don’t know how to obtain such an investigation. Even such an investigation will only test appliances for CO and not for other toxins.

Furthermore, it seems there is no organisation that is tasked with looking at the problems of CO from a victim’s point of view other than CO-Gas Safety. Yet CO-Gas Safety is a a tiny charity and at the time of writing (March 2010) we have no grant from the Department of Health. The main full time worker, Stephanie Trotter who is a barrister (not practising law at the moment) runs the charity on a voluntary basis and has done so since 1995.

A great deal of the work of CO-Gas Safety is helping victims and this work provides valuable information that can be used to improve gas safety. This work is an important research tool. A properly funded body should be undertaking this work.