As more families rely on space heaters and natural gas to keep warm this winter, it’s important to know the risks, learn about the signs of CO poisoning and make sure CO monitors are functioning properly.
CO is a colorless, practically odorless and tasteless gas that claims the lives of more than 400 Americans every year and lands more than 100,000 in the emergency room, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Though it’s commonly referred to as “CO,” another name families may know it by is carbon monoxide. Here’s what families should know to prevent, detect and get treatment for CO poisoning.
What does carbon monoxide poisoning look like?
Identifying CO poisoning can be difficult because early symptoms are similar to flu symptoms, Laureen Burton says.
Burton is a chemist/toxicologist for the Indoor Environments Division of the Environmental Protection Agency.
While early symptoms like headache, dizziness, weakness, an upset stomach, vomiting, chest pain and confusion might not point distinctively to CO poisoning, there are some ways to determine that it may be CO poisoning.
According to Burton, these ways include:
• Presence of fuel-burning appliances and devices in the home,
an attached garage with a running vehicle, use of a gasoline
powered generator near the home
• Feeling better when away from the home or in fresh air
• Everyone in the home feeling ill at the same time
• If a CO alarm is triggered
“If you suspect you are being subjected to carbon monoxide poisoning, get fresh air immediately,” Burton says.
Parents should also open windows and doors to increase ventilation, turn off combustion appliances and leave the home.
Continued exposure can lead to more severe headaches, dizziness, fatigue, confusion and nausea. Symptoms can continue to progress to impaired judgement, loss of coordination or consciousness and death.
“You could lose consciousness and die from carbon monoxide poisoning if you do nothing,” Burton says.
It’s also important to contact a doctor immediately for a proper diagnosis. If parents suspect CO poisoning, it’s important to share that concern with the doctor.
When visiting the doctor for suspected CO poisoning, Burton says families should try to have the following information:
• Do symptoms only occur in the home? Do they disappear or
decrease when you leave the home and reappear upon return?
• Is anyone else in your household complaining of similar
symptoms? Do you always have symptoms? Are your
symptoms getting worse?
• Do you often catch colds or get the flu?
• Are you using combustion appliances in the home? Has
anyone inspected those appliances recently? Are you sure
they’re working properly?
How does carbon monoxide enter the home?
CO can come from the incomplete burning of any material that contains carbon. Most commonly, this means natural gas, gasoline, wood and other combustibles.
According to Burton, common sources of CO in homes include clothes dryers; water heaters; unvented kerosene and gas space heaters; gas stoves; leaking chimneys or furnaces; back-drafting from furnaces, wood stoves and fireplaces; generators and other gasoline-powered equipment used in enclosed spaces or too-close-to-building air intakes and automobile exhaust from attached garages.
How can families prevent and detect harmful levels of carbon monoxide?
As Benjamin Franklin is famously quoted, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Burton shares the following steps for CO poisoning prevention: installing, using and maintaining fuel-burning appliances properly and in accordance with manufacturer instructions; making sure to have adequate ventilation when using these appliances and ensuring that these appliances and devices are vented to outside whenever possible.
In the winter months, families should make sure these vents aren’t blocked by snow or ice in cases of inclement weather.
The next step that parents should take in protecting the home is to make sure there are enough working CO alarms properly installed in the home.
“Since CO cannot be detected by our senses, dangerous concentrations of the gas can build up indoors without detection until people are ill,” Burton says. “Therefore, it is recommended that all homes have CO alarms.”
CO alarms should be installed in the hallway and near every separate sleeping area. If CO alarms are installed in the right places in the home, parents should remember to test and clean them regularly and replace the battery at least once a year.
Burton stresses that CO alarms should be considered a backup to but not a replacement for proper installation, use and maintenance of appliances that burn fuel.
For CO safety for children, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission offers illustrated guides for families in English and Spanish. Parents can find these guides and fast facts about CO alarms at cpsc.gov.
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