You feel lousy. Your head hurts, you`re dizzy and maybe you`re sick to your stomach. Sounds like the flu, doesn`t it? Even a doctor might say the same and send you home for bed rest and plenty of liquids.
But Dr. Paul S. Heckerling found that 3 to 5 percent of patients coming to the emergency room of the University of Illinois Hospital in the winter of 1985-86 with these flulike symptoms were suffering from carbon monoxide (CO)
poisoning, with levels of more than 10 percent of the gas in their blood.
Traditionally we think of people being overcome by carbon monoxide from automobile fumes or building fires, but there are other sources as well. Carbon monoxide results from the incomplete combustion of organic fuels such as coal, oil, wood, kerosene and natural gas. So when furnaces, fireplaces, water heaters, gas stoves or gas or kerosene room heaters aren`t working properly, they too can cause carbon monoxide to build up in the home. When people breathe the poisonous gas, it gets into the bloodstream, where it displaces oxygen.
Patients with low levels of carbon monoxide are given 100 percent oxygen. In more severe cases, patients are put in a hyperbaric chamber, which provides oxygen at a pressure higher than normal atmospheric pressure.
Heckerling says doctors sometimes overlooked the possibility of carbon monoxide poisoning and sent patients home, where they grew progressively worse and sometimes died. So that all patients suffering from headaches and nausea need not have a blood test to check for CO poisoning, Heckerling and his colleagues looked for other ways doctors could pinpoint those whose symptoms were caused by carbon monoxide. During the winter of 1986-87, they questioned patients who had been exposed and found two common denominators: They all had been using their gas stoves to heat their homes, and all of them told of others in their homes who also felt ill.
Symptoms, however, may vary from person to person and may take longer to show up in some people than in others. ”Carbon monoxide poisoning can be a very great masquerader, taking on the form of many more common medical problems,” says Heckerling, ”so it`s not surprising that it has often been overlooked.” Victims themselves may not realize that they are being exposed to carbon monoxide, because it is a colorless, odorless gas.
When appliances are functioning properly, there is no danger of carbon monoxide buildup. Natural gas, for example, is a clean-burning fuel that gives off only water, carbon dioxide and nitrogen during combustion, according to Vincent W. Ambrosia, technical training supervisor with the Peoples Gas Light and Coke Co. These byproducts are not dangerous but must be vented to the outside. When they are not they accumulate, depleting the oxygen necessary for complete combustion, and then carbon monoxide begins to form and build up.
Ambrosia, who has been in the heating business for 40 years, says there is one major cause. ”Ninety percent of the time when we have a carbon monoxide problem,” he says, ”it`s because of a breakdown of the venting system, so the products of combustion cannot leave the home.”
Ambrosia says if carbon monoxide is being produced, the problem will probably not begin to show up until October or November. Until then, the heating system is not on constantly and windows are opened occasionally on nice days, so the air is being changed. ”It`s when the full heating season with everything closed tight begins that conditions can develop that cause injuries,” he says.
Of course, keeping a house or apartems are working properly.”
Although people cannot see or smell carbon monoxide in their homes, it does leave telltale signs. When carbon monoxide is present, it means that water produced from combustion is not being vented to the outside, so excessive moisture will begin to build up on windows and walls. That same water will cause premature rusting of the faulty appliance or the venting pipe.
If the air smells stuffy or stale, carbon monoxide may be present. If the chimney doesn`t have a draft-or a hot draft is backing out-that, too, is a warning sign.
With gas stoves, the color of the flame of the burners will reveal whether the stove is the culprit. ”Natural gas burns with a blue flame, and occasionally you`ll see streaks of orange, which are particles of dust drawn in with the air, but that`s not dangerous,” says Ambrosia. ”But when the burner is not getting enough air to support combustion, the flame turns a bright luminous yellow.”
Ambrosia also says that where there is carbon monoxide, there is also carbon. This will appear as soot in or around the appliance or as streaks on the bottom of pans used on the gas burners. ”I have seen heating plants with carbon all over the floor in front of them and on the top, and the inside was just one ball of carbon,” he says. ”In those cases the people were on their way to the hospital.”
A qualifed professional should be called when any of these signs is present. Ambrosia says service people from the gas company test the air with a special instrument that can detect carbon monoxide down to one-thousandth of 1 percent. When it is present, they will check all appliances to see which one is at fault and repair it if they can. In cases where they are not qualified to make repairs, they will disconnect the appliance and tell customers how to get the needed repairs done.
Most carbon monoxide problems can be avoided with a little foresight. First the don`t`s: Don`t use the stove for heating purposes, don`t use barbecue grills inside, don`t use gas or kerosene room heaters without proper ventilation.
Then the do`s: If your home is being renovated or heavily insulated, or if you are enclosing heating equipment to gain some living space, discuss the need for additional ducts or vents with the architect or the contractor.
Preventive maintenance of equipment is essential. ”An annual inspection of the venting systems and the heating system is a must,” says Ambrosia. ”As an old-timer, it aggravates me when I think that people would never think of going a whole year driving their automobile without having it tuned up, but they let their heating plants go for four or five years before having them checked.” Remember, too, that chimneys can get blocked with falling leaves and make cozy homes for birds and animals to make their nests.
It is important to have a qualified professional do the work. Beware of quacks who will knock on doors offering to take your money to make a bogus furnace inspection or sweep of your chimney.
Even when everything checks out in perfect working order, homeowners cannot be complacent. ”Carbon monoxide problems can be avoided, but not in 100 percent of the cases,” says Ambrosia. ”I could check your venting system now and say your chimney is working beautifully and leave. Then that evening there`s a storm and a brick is knocked down in the chimney, and suddenly the conditions have changed.”
It was one of those unforseeable circumstances that led Mark Goldstein, president of Quantum Group Inc. in San Diego, to develop a series of carbon monoxide detectors. Goldstein, who has a doctorate in chemistry and is an expert in energy, was called in to testify in a case where a family of four had died in their home from carbon monoxide poisoning. He says that he found that ”it was not the problem of the appliance, but of the vent. Someone had been up on the roof to fix a TV antenna and had left a lunch box on the vent, and it started to choke up with carbon monoxide.”
The next step seemed obvious to Goldstein. ”I began to realize there was a very easy and simple way to solve the problem by putting a carbon monoxide safety shutoff device on an appliance.”
The device is now being produced by Quantum, and manufacturers can install it on their appliances. To detect carbon monoxide in the home, Quantum also makes a series of carbon monoxide alarms because smoke alarms will not pick up the presence of carbon monoxide. According to Bob Crawford, manager of accessories certification at the American Gas Association, Quantum`s Models 24C and 115A are the only carbon monoxide detectors on the market to date that have been certified by the association, the gas industry`s equivalent of Underwriters Laboratories. Quantum also produces a small badge, the Quantum Eye, that changes color when carbon monoxide is present.
Ambrosia says he feels very strongly about encouraging people to take precautions to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning. ”I have personally been involved in five cases where people have been overcome by carbon monoxide,”
he says. ”It`s a terrible way to die, and it`s so unnecessary.”
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For more information on carbon monoxide detectors, contact Quantum Group Inc., 11211 Sorrento Valley Rd., Suite D, San Diego, Calif. 92121 (phone:
800-642-1144).
