Carbon monoxide (CO)
Carbon monoxide is a deadly gas produced by any appliance that burns fuel–your car, furnace, or wood stove, to name a few. The fact that it’s colorless and odorless makes it even more dangerous and difficult to detect. Each year, approximately 400 Americans from CO poisoning, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Installing a detector in your house is a low-cost and easy task that could one day save your life. Winter means more combustion in Alaska homes, as heating appliances are on longer and cars need to be warmed up. It’s also a good time to spend a few minutes installing a CO detector or checking the batteries in one that you already have.
CO is produced when a fuel–such as wood, diesel, kerosene, coal, propane, or gasoline–is burned incompletely. That includes many home heating devices as well as cars, generators, four-wheelers and even lawnmowers and chainsaws. CO isn’t typically a problem with these devices because they are either operated outside away from buildings where the CO can dissipate or designed with a chimney to channel exhaust gases out of a building.
However, CO becomes a problem if devices are operated inside with no ventilation, such as when a car is running in a closed garage or a heating appliance begins to leak exhaust gases into a home.
Several things make CO poisoning particularly scary. Because it can’t be detected by humans it often goes overlooked, even as symptoms develop steadily. Signs of low-level poisoning are similar to the flu, including a headache, nausea, fatigue, and dizziness. It can occur over days and weeks, and different people in the household might respond in different ways, making it difficult to spot a pattern.
High doses of CO cause confusion, vomiting, loss of muscle control and potentially even death. If someone is operating a generator in a closed room, for example, he or she can become disoriented and lose muscle control before experiencing the more mild symptoms or realizing what’s happening.
The most important thing you can do to protect yourself and your family is to install a CO detector, available at hardware stores. These devices have an alarm that will sound when the CO level has risen to toxic levels. In fact, Alaska law specifies that a CO detector be “installed and maintained in all qualifying dwelling units in the state.” This includes rental units, where the landlord is responsible for installing the detector and the tenant must maintain it.
When installing the detector, look at the manufacturer instructions to see how it is powered, operated, and mounted to a wall. In general, there should be at least one detector placed at breathing level on every floor of a residence, and an additional detector in sleeping areas of a home.
Of course, it’s no good to have a detector if you don’t maintain it. This involves changing the batteries if battery operated, testing the unit if it has a test function, and replacing the unit after its lifetime has been reached. Some detectors sound an alarm when they reach the end of their life, but if your model doesn’t, search for an online manual and check the lifetime. Generally, detectors should be replaced every five years or so.
In addition to the CO detector, it’s important to get yearly service for your heating appliances, which can identify leaks in the exhaust system or backdrafting before CO leaks into a home. Also, always follow manufacturer instructions when operating combustion appliances and avoid operating them indoors if they are designed for outside use only.