How to Protect Against Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
What the public should know
National Gas Emergency Service Helpline (National Grid plc) Tel. 0800 111999 - But please note that the National Gas Emergency Service does not carry equipment to test for CO - like sending someone out to trace radioactivity without a Geiger counter!
Chimneys and flues must be swept regularly and appliances checked once a year by a fully qualified engineer/sweep. Ask about training & experience - it's your money and your life. Ensure that your gas fitter uses a flue gas analyser to check for the silent killer, CO gas.
Do not block vents. Make sure you have some ventilation and wear extra clothes/bedclothes to keep warm.
Portable heaters using combustible fuels have been responsible for some recent deaths from CO. We urge that if there is no other alternative and a portable appliance has to be used, the greatest care is taken to ensure the following:-
1. Adequate ventilation.
2. A CO detector with an audible alarm is used in the same room.
3. Children or vulnerable people are never left alone with such an appliance.
4. The appliance is never left on while anyone is sleeping in the room or house or etc. where the portable appliance is present.
Electric fan heaters are safer with regard to Carbon Monoxide.
As an extra safeguard buy a Carbon Monoxide detector with an audible alarm to European Standards.
A battery operated CO detector with an audible alarm to European Standards is especially useful to take with you abroad.
Be aware that low levels of CO exposure over a long period can cause brain damage. Doctors can mistake CO symptoms for 'flu or other common conditions so insist on a test for CO. Please note that some doctors' surgeries have equipment, (sometimes called a Smokelysler or ToxCo), to analyse breath for CO. This is easy, painless and gives an instant result. If this shows CO, a blood test may be required.
But remember that fresh air quickly reduces CO in a live body so, unless breath or blood is taken at the scene, in the ambulance or within 24 hours or so, a test may not show CO, even when CO has poisoned.
Doctor John Henry, then Consultant Physician at the National Poisons Unit, surveyed 200 General Practitioners. He sent them symptoms of CO poisoning. Although many sensible suggestions were made, not one GP suggested CO as a cause of these symptoms.
Hyperbaric Oxygen, (i.e. under pressure) can prevent lasting damage.
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Also in this section
>> Carbon monoxide alarms
>> Useful addresses
>> Blood Tests (PDF)
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