CO-Gas Safety's Statistics of Deaths and Injuries 

On average, unintentional Carbon Monoxide (CO) poisoning from all fuels kills 40 people per year and injures around 300. These figures are almost certainly the tip of an iceberg as there is no automatic testing for CO of people on death or even those who die suddenly and people who have symptoms of CO have great difficulty obtaining a blood or breath test.

Also, The National Gas Emergency Service has no equipment to test appliances or the air in the home for CO. As CO is not tested for, it is not officially found or recorded. CO-Gas Safety thinks that it is scandalous that a deadly gas, which cannot be sensed using human senses, is not tested for by the Gas Emergency Service. Most Registered Gas Installers have flue gas analysers, which can be used to test for CO but the installers are reluctant to use them to test the air in a room for CO or to give consumers the parts per million of CO (if any) found.

Download the latest Statistics* (.docx format)

*Please note that we gather these statistics from newspaper cuttings etc and we check deaths with the Coroners - most Coroners are very helpful. Figures for near-misses reflect only those reported in the press; we expect the true figure to be much higher. Deaths and injuries sometimes do not come to our attention for several years. The reason is that often we do not hear of a death until the inquest is reported in the press. It is not unusual for the inquest to be held around three years after the death and in some cases, even longer after the death. This has the consequence of the most recent years seeming to have lower death rates.
Please also note that all figures are running totals and are adjusted as more information is gathered. 

Analysis of Deaths & Injuries

Download the latest Analysis charts (.docx format)

Why have we collected this data?

Background to CO-Gas Safety’s 16 years of data of deaths and injuries from Unintentional Carbon Monoxide poisoning and gas explosions from 01.09.1995 – 31.08.2011

When we first launched at the House of Commons in 1995, it was obvious that there was a huge need. However, we did not know how many people were dying or being injured from carbon monoxide poisoning and we needed to find out. It was also obvious that if a common reason could be found for the deaths, those deaths could be reduced. We asked the then Gas Consumers Council to attend all the inquests on CO deaths in one year but they responded that such an exercise had ‘resource implications’. The GCC was funded by a levy on the industry, so we asked the GCC to ask for more funding to do this. Stephanie Trotter did some research and found out that inquests could be attended by junior barristers for £100 each plus £100 for compilation etc., costing a total a total of £10,000 for 50 deaths. Hardly a huge cost so the charity put this proposal to the GCC. As far as we know, GCC failed to act on our suggestion.

We started collecting data in Autumn 1995, using every method available and employed a press cutting agency. Trotter asked a friend, Jo Richards if she would take this over for some payment. Thankfully she agreed and she has compiled the data all these years. Obviously we worked hard to refine our methods and were soon writing to Coroners to check details.
We found out some interesting facts:-

1. It can take up to three years for an inquest to be held so the most recent years show fewer deaths because we often don’t hear about a death until the inquest.
   
   
2. Local papers were remarkably accurate on the whole, especially when reporting an inquest.  When you think about it, this is not surprising because local journalist don’t want to cause offence by writing ‘John Smith committed suicide’ when he didn’t.
   
   
3. The Coroners (although all independent) became more and more helpful because we sent them our statistics, a one page update of the deaths (we still do this see page XX) so they could and can see that we used the data we sent them. I would like to thank all those Coroners and Coroners’ officers for the invaluable work they do and the help they have given the charity over the years. We couldn’t have done this work without you.
   
   
4. We found that in order to be accurate, you need the name of the deceased, the date of death and the place of death (the place of death provides the Coroner with his or her jurisdiction over the body – with deaths abroad it is where the body arrives in the UK).
   
   
5. The HSE did not publish the names of the dead for many years so it was impossible to compare our data with theirs. The HSE basically only collects gas related CO deaths.
   
   
6. HSE maintained that the families would be upset if HSE published the names. We had asked the families (it seems HSE had not) and families were glad that we intended to publish the names; they told us that our list is like a war memorial. HSE does now give us the names but so far they still don’t check the deaths with Coroners.
   
   
7. We decided to collect, compile and freely publish named CO deaths from all fuels.
   
   
8. Other bodies were extremely helpful to us, such as the Solid Fuel Association.
   
   
9. Setting up the database and website was another milestone. We decided that the only way forward was to publish our data on the website so anyone could correct any errors. Our data is continually updated and corrected where further information (e.g. from an inquest or from relatives) is provided.
   
   
10. We were told in March 2011, the All Party Parliamentary Gas Safety Group is setting up research into ‘barriers to accurate recording of data’.  We have been collecting data since September 1995. For a summary of the APPGSG report please see pages XX and XX.
     Recommendation 17 of the APPGSG report states:-
    ‘The Health and Safety Executive, working in partnership with industry, should create a central collation point for data relating to carbon monoxide injuries and fatalities, together with a dedicated helpline that would help act as a signposting service.’
    In our press pack 2011 we stated ‘The real issue is why is there no automatic test of dead bodies for CO? Also, why doesn’t Government encourage Coroners to report this sort of CO death automatically?’ We are therefore delighted that Recommendation 7 of the APPGSG report states:-
    ‘The Government should ensure that all coroners’ post-mortems routinely test for carboxyhaemoglobin levels, recording death from carbon monoxide poisoning as a distinct category and to notify this to a central register if a verdict is recorded only in the narrative section of the coroner’s certificate.’
    
    
11. It seems wrong that our data is the best in the UK but this seems to be so. It is peculiar that our data continues to be ignored.  Perhaps big business cannot accept that a small charity can do just as well, if not better, than large organizations with huge funding?
    
    
12. We would like to have the funding to continue our data collection, to provide more analysis of the existing data and to find someone independent to check it. In the past we have been supported by the Department of Health for many years and we are grateful. In our opinion, our research is not something that can be peer reviewed, because who else is even trying to gather as much data as we are? Therefore, perhaps the best way forward would be to find someone independent to randomly check 10% or so of the deaths in our database. However, we need funding just to continue, let alone do this.
    
    CO-Gas Safety applied to the Gas Safe Charity for funding to continue our data in September 2010. This was refused but a further application was made in 2011 and the Gas Safe Charity agreed to pay for a statistician to validate our data. This is being undertaken as this press pack is being prepared. See pages XX.
    
    Stephanie Trotter, OBE

Sponsorship urgently sought for the data collection and publication to continue and for the work of the charity generally

Arguably an office is needed but it should be able to find people to do this from home.
Our application to the Gas Safe Charity was considered and they are paying for our data to be validated by an independent statistician. Once this has been completed, the GSC will decide whether or not to fund CO-Gas Safety to continue this work.  

CO-Gas Safety also runs a Helpline and attends many meetings to put the victim’s and consumer’s point of view.
Please Note. A friend of Stephanie’s, Jo Richards, has been doing the job of data collating  brilliantly since we started collecting data in 1995. She does this work from home, when she can find the time. We have not been able to pay her very much and she has done a lot of the work without charging. With her help we have estimated that it would take about 500 hours per year at £20 per hour to do the work even from home. We doubt this would be enough to find someone of the right calibre.

We are also most concerned with finding a replacement for Stephanie. Although this is not urgent yet, it will become so very soon. Stephanie’s husband, John Trotter, who is a senior partner in Bates Wells & Braithwaite (a solicitors’ firm which specialises in charity law) states that he wishes to retire in April 2013. Naturally Stephanie wishes to be free to be with him, not working the present 14 hours per day in winter.

We only heard on the 16th January 2011 that our data had been used extensively in preparing a piece of Government research ’Study on the Provision of Carbon Monoxide Detectors Under the Building Regulations’ BD 2754 http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/planningandbuilding/pdf/1324663
We complained as this is a breach of our copyright and eventually received a donation.

We have recently heard (December 2011) that our data has been used for an article in International Journal of Environmental Health Research.
Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cije20

Epidemiology of unintentional carbon monoxide fatalities in the UK
Alexandra de Juniac, Irene Kreis, Judith Ibison & Virginia Murray, Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards (London)
Health Protection Agency, London, UK
St. George's University, London, UK
Population Health Sciences and Education, St. George's University, London, UK
Available online: 16 Dec 2011
However, we cannot obtain more than the abstract due to copyright!

There is the website to keep up and there are other expenses such as computer help, telephone, stationary and travelling to help victims (at inquests for example) etc.
Stephanie works from home so there are virtually no office costs.

There are gas safety trusts with funds and companies which make huge profits and yet profess to care about their customers and gas safety, yet a charity such as CO-Gas Safety is struggling simply to find funding to continue its vital work.

Stephanie and the directors do the work as volunteers. Think how much more it would cost if CO-Gas Safety was run by civil servants or company employees with bonuses and pension funds!

If there are any wealthy trusts or companies which would be willing to fund CO-Gas Safety’s vital work, please get in contact with us on office@co-gassafety.co.uk Tel. 01372 466135. This work needs to be continued.