Carbon Monoxide Awareness
Would you know how to recognise the effects of Carbon Monoxide (CO) poisoning? The organisation CO Awareness was set up to support the victims of Carbon Monoxide (CO) poisoning and Toxic Combustion (TC) poisoning, their families and friends.
Carbon Monoxide can be produced in any fuel burning appliance that is not properly maintained. Sources can include cookers, heaters, gas tumble dryers, hot water heaters and fireplaces.
Carbon Monoxide is particularly dangerous because it is very hard to detect. It has no smell or taste, but in large quantities, it can kill very quickly. Every year it kills around 20 – 30 people. It can also cause permanent damage to people’s health.
The main symptoms of CO poisoning are very similar to flu and include headaches, dizziness, tiredness and nausea. If you think you are suffering from CO poisoning, open the windows and get out into the fresh air immediately. If the symptoms are serious, go straight to your doctor or to A&E. Young children, older people, students, people with anaemia and those with heart and lung diseases are more at risk than others. Pregnant women risk damage to their unborn child from CO.
Warning signs of a CO leak:
- Yellow or orange flames in appliances instead of blue flames
- Sooty stains on walls around fires and water heaters.
Useful tips to protect yourself and your family from CO poisoning
- Get your appliances checked every year. Use only qualified engineers e.g. a Gas Safe Registered installer for gas appliances and ask to see their ID card before inviting them into your home.
- If you rent property then by law your landlord must have an annual safety check carried out by a Gas Safe Registered installer on each gas appliance in your home that they own and provide you with a copy of the gas safety certificate to prove they have been serviced, before you move in and within 28 days of each subsequent annual check being performed. It is the tenant’s responsibility to maintain any gas appliance they own themselves e.g. cooker or mobile heater.
- Get a carbon monoxide alarm which can detect low levels of the gas. If you are a tenant and your landlord hasn’t fitted an alarm, get one yourself.
- Check your chimney flue is not blocked.
- Check there is enough ventilation in your home. Keep airbricks unblocked and open windows.