Rockwood Water, Sewer & Gas
Carbon Monoxide Awareness
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Carbon Monoxide
Poisoning Symptom
Mild
carbon monoxide poisoning causes headache, nausea, vomiting, drowsiness, and poor coordination. Most people who develop
mild carbon monoxide poisoning recover quickly when moved into fresh air.
Moderate
or severe carbon monoxide poisoning causes confusion, unconsciousness, chest pain, shortness of breath, and coma.
Thus, most victims are not able to move themselves and must be rescued.
Severe
poisoning is often fatal. Rarely, weeks after apparent recovery from severe carbon monoxide poisoning, symptoms such
as memory loss, poor coordination, and uncontrollable loss of urine (which are referred to as delayed neuropsychiatric symptoms)
develop.
Carbon monoxide
is dangerous because a person may not recognize drowsiness as a symptom of poisoning. Consequently, someone with mild poisoning
can go to sleep and continue to breathe the carbon monoxide until severe poisoning or death occurs. Some people with long-standing,
mild carbon monoxide poisoning caused by furnaces or heaters may mistake their symptoms for other conditions, such as the
flu or other viral infections.
Carbon monoxide
poisoning is diagnosed by measuring the level of carbon monoxide in the blood.
What is Carbon
Monoxide?
Carbon monoxide
is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, toxic gas that has the molecular formula CO. The molecule consists of a carbon atom that
is triply bonded to an oxygen atom.
Carbon Monoxide
is produced by the incomplete combustion of the fossil fuels - gas, oil, coal and wood used in boilers, engines, oil burners,
gas fires, water heaters, solid fuel appliances and open fires.
Carbon monoxide
is a commercially important chemical. It is also formed in many chemical reactions and in the thermal or incomplete decomposition
of many organic materials.
Dangerous amounts
of CO can accumulate when as a result of poor installation, poor maintenance or failure or damage to an appliance in service,
the fuel is not burned properly, or when rooms are poorly ventilated and the Carbon Monoxide is unable to escape.
Having no
smell, taste or color, in today's world of improved insulation and double glazing it has become increasingly important to
have good ventilation, maintain all appliances regularly and to have absolutely reliable detector alarms installed giving
both a visual and audible warning immediately there is a build up of CO to dangerous levels.
NO SMELL and
NO TASTE and NO COLOUR
And it is for these
reasons that CO detectors are the only way to alert you to increasingly dangerous levels of CO before tragedy strikes.
Placement
of Carbon Monoxide Detectors Important
Proper placement
of a carbon monoxide detector is important. If you are installing only one carbon monoxide detector, the Consumer Product
Safety Commission (CPSC) recommends it be located near the sleeping area, where it can wake you if you are asleep. Additional
detectors on every level and in every bedroom of a home provides extra protection.
Homeowners should
remember not to install carbon monoxide detectors directly above or beside fuel-burning appliances, as appliances may emit
a small amount of carbon monoxide upon start-up. A detector should not be placed within five feet of heating or cooking appliances
or in or near very humid areas such as bathrooms.
When considering
where to place a carbon monoxide detector, keep in mind that although carbon monoxide is roughly the same weight as air (carbon
monoxide's has a specific gravity of 0.9657, as air has a specific gravity of 1.0000, stated by the EPA; the National Resource. Carbon Monoxide may be contained in warm air coming from combustion appliances such
as home heating equipment. If this is the case, carbon monoxide will rise with the warmer air.
For this reason,
the makers of First Alert (R), the leading brand in carbon monoxide detector technology, suggests mounting the detector on
the ceiling. This also puts the detector out of the way of potential interference, such as pets or curious children.
What do I
do if I hear the CO detector alarm?
Do not ignore the
CO detector's alarm if it sounds. Treat each alarm as serious and respond accordingly.
CO detectors
are designed to sound an alarm before a healthy adult would feel any symptoms. Infants, the elderly and those with respiratory
and heart conditions are at particular risk and may react to even low levels of CO poisoning (Health Canada, 1989).
Response
To An Obvious Source Of CO
If your detector
sounds an alarm and you have an obvious source of CO, such as an un-vented kerosene heater:
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evacuate the house, including pets and do a head count
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if anyone is suffering from flu-like symptoms, call 911
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remove or turn off the source
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ventilate the house
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reset the alarm
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do not re-occupy the house until the alarm ceases
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take steps to avoid this situation in the future.
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Carbon Monoxide Awareness |