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YOUR POTECTION IS OUR PRIORITY
Educating yourself about CO, and taking simple
precautions, can help to protect your family’s health
and well-being. There are many different brands of CO
alarms so some research and make sure your protected.
Don’t start or leave running cars, trucks, or other
vehicles in an enclosed area.
Every home should have at least one CO detector
installed.
Have your furnace and other fuel burning appliances
tested and inspected by a qualified professional once a
year or before each heating season. Each manufacturer’s
measurable standards may be found in the unit’s
instructions.
Make sure your HVAC service professional tests each
appliance using a testing instrument that can detect
carbon monoxide or analyze the combustion gases. He
should also be able to measure building and duct
pressures, which may aid in the prevention of combustion
system failure and CO generation.
CO detectors & properly maintained combustion appliances
can save lives!
DON’T ignore symptoms, particularly if more than one
person is feeling them. You could lose consciousness and
die if you do nothing.
EXCESSIVE LEVLES OF CO CAN BE EXTREAMLY HARMFUL
These levels should be referenced to the effects on
healthy people. Health effects can vary significantly
based on age, sex, weight, and overall state of health.
PPM = parts per million molecules of air
· 12,000 PPM – Death within 1 – 3 minutes
· 1600 PPM – Nausea within 15 minutes, death within 1
hour
· 800 PPM – Nausea and convulsions – death within 2
hours
· 400 PPM – Frontal headaches 1 to 2 hour’s life
threatening within 3 hours
· 50 PPM – Maximum level for continuous exposure in an 8
hour workday
· 10–35 PPM – Marginal Small children, elderly, and
those suffering respiratory or heart problems
· 9 PPM – The concentration often found on busy city
streets
· 1 – 9 PPM – Any increase of CO from outside warrants
further investigation but may not be an immediate health
risk
CO is an odorless poisonous gas that is a product of
incomplete combustion of carbon, and thus commonly found
in smoke. CO is produced in large quantities in
virtually all house fires. According to the National
Fire Protection Association, approximately 2,840
civilians died per year in structure fires (2003-2007).
In structure fires the most common cause of death is
smoke inhalation.
CO can also be produced in poisonous quantities from
malfunctioning or improperly operated devices that use
fossil fuels (eg. propane stove/heater, natural gas
furnace, natural gas cooking stove, generators etc.). CO
kills an average of 500 people per year during non-fire
events such as appliance malfunctions (Center for
Disease Control). Like a smoke detector, a CO detector
is a critical component of a complete home safety
system.
In a home with a central forced air heating system a
duct detector has two added safety features. First,
since it monitors circulating air from different areas
of the house it may alert occupants earlier than a
detector in a specific room(s). Second, if the system is
programmed to stop air circulation during an alarm it
will slow the spread of CO or smoke to areas of the
house remote from the fire through the ventilation
system.
Benjamin Mellon
Professional Fire Officer
Carbon monoxide (CO) is a colorless, odorless, tasteless
gas produced as a byproduct of combustion. CO is
absorbed by the bloodstream 200 times faster than
oxygen, asphyxiating it's victims often before they are
aware of it's presence. CO poisoning accounts for
approximately 15,000 ER visits and over 500 deaths each
year in the USA. A frequent cause of CO poisoning is
malfunctioning gas fired furnaces, so having CO
monitoring within HVAC systems is essential to
preventing CO poisoning emergencies. I have personally
seen CO detectors save lives.
Brian Schleicher, Firefighter/Paramedic
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