LEXINGTON — As the cold months close in and heaters are cranked up and cars are left running, the chances for carbon monoxide poisoning increase. Education about carbon monoxide and following safe practice methods can help avoid injury or death.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Protection, “Carbon monoxide (CO), an odorless, colorless gas, which can cause sudden illness and death, is produced any time a fossil fuel is burned.”
It is toxic to any animals which use hemoglobin as an oxygen carrier, this includes humans. It can be found in the atmosphere spatially but it is short lived and plays a role in the formation of ground level ozone.
According to the CDC, “Everyone is at risk for CO poisoning. Infants, the elderly, people with chronic heart disease, anemia, or breathing problems are more likely to get sick from CO.”
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On a molecular level, carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom, it is the simplest oxocarbon, with two covalent bonds and one dative covalent bond.
Carbon monoxide poisoning is the most common type of fatal air poisoning throughout the world, in the United States CO poisoning results in 20,000 emergency room visits per year and around 400 non-fire related deaths.
The poisoning occurs when CO combines with hemoglobin in blood to produce a compound known as carboxyhemoglobin.
This compound usurps the space in hemoglobin which would normally carry oxygen, making oxygen delivery throughout the body inefficient. A level of 50 percent of carboxyhemoglobin can result in seizure, coma and death.
The most common symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning may resemble other types of poisonings and infections, including symptoms such as headache, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, fatigue, and a feeling of weakness. Affected families often believe they are victims of food poisoning. Infants may be irritable and feed poorly. Neurological signs include confusion, disorientation, visual disturbance, syncope (fainting), and seizures, according to a scientific article from 2001.
“One classic sign of carbon monoxide poisoning is more often seen in the dead rather than the living people have been described as looking red-cheeked and healthy. However, since this ‘cherry-red’ appearance is more common in the dead, it is not considered a useful diagnostic sign in clinical medicine,” according to a 1998 scientific article.
“In autopsy examinations, the ruddy appearance of carbon monoxide poisoning is notable because unembalmed dead persons are normally bluish and pale, whereas dead carbon-monoxide poisoned people may appear unusually lifelike in coloration,” the article continued.
CO is the product of the combustion of organic matter under conditions of restricted oxygen supply. Sources include, but are not limited to, cigarette smoke, house fires, faulty furnaces, heaters, wood burning stoves, internal combustion engine vehicle exhaust, electrical generators, propane fueled equipment.
Exposure usually occurs when equipment is used in buildings or semi-enclosed spaces. Riding in the box of pickup trucks has led to the poisoning of children and people in idling automobiles have been affected when the exhaust was packed with snow.
“Any perforation between the exhaust manifold and shroud can result in exhaust gases reaching the cabin. Generators and propulsion engines on boats, especially houseboats, has resulted in fatal carbon monoxide exposures,” according to the CDC.
At the moment it is unknown whether low level chronic exposure causes permanent damage to a person’s body, usually, when removed from exposure to CO, the symptoms resolve themselves, unless the exposure has been severe acute poisoning.
It was first recorded in the 300s B.C. by the philosopher Aristotle that burning coals produced toxic fumes, in fact an ancient method of execution was to shut the condemned in a bathing room with smoldering coals.
The realization of CO’s interaction with hemoglobin was discovered in 1857.
Carbon monoxide poisoning was also used during the Holocaust when German’s put Jewish victims in gas vans. It was also used in the Nazi’s Action T4 euthanasia program in which people in German society which were considered inferior or undesirable in the Nazi world view were killed.
Today there is heighted awareness of CO’s effects and how to prevent it.
The CDC has several ways to prevent carbon monoxide exposure,
• Install a battery-operated or battery back-up CO detector in your home and check or replace the battery when you change the time on your clocks each spring and fall. Place your detector where it will wake you up if it alarms, such as outside your bedroom. Consider buying a detector with a digital readout. This detector can tell you the highest level of CO concentration in your home in addition to alarming. Replace your CO detector every five years.
• Do have your heating system, water heater and any other gas, oil, or coal burning appliances serviced by a qualified technician every year.
• Do install a battery-operated or battery back-up CO detector in your home. Check or replace the battery when you change the time on your clocks each spring and fall. If the detector sounds leave your home immediately and call 911.
• Do seek prompt medical help if you suspect CO poisoning and are feeling dizzy, light-headed, or nauseated.
• Don’t use a generator, charcoal grill, camp stove, or other gasoline or charcoal-burning device inside your home, basement, or garage or near a window.
• Don’t run a car or truck inside a garage attached to your house, even if you leave the door open.
• Don’t burn anything in a stove or fireplace that isn’t vented.
• Don’t heat your house with a gas oven.
• Don’t use a generator, pressure washer, or any gasoline-powered engine less than 20 feet from any window, door, or vent. Use an extension cord that is more than 20 feet long to keep the generator at a safe distance.
To avoid CO poisoning from a vehicle,
• Have a mechanic check the exhaust system of your car or truck every year. A small leak in the exhaust system can lead to a build up of CO inside the car.
• Never run your car or truck inside a garage that is attached to a house even with the garage door open. Always open the door to a detached garage to let in fresh air when you run a car or truck inside.
• If you drive a car or SUV with a tailgate, when you open the tailgate open the vents or windows to make sure air is moving through. If only the tailgate is open CO from the exhaust will be pulled into the car or SUV.
Even small gas powered engines can cause CO poisoning. The CDC records the following cases,
• A farm owner died of CO poisoning while using an 11-horsepower, gasoline-powered pressure washer to clean his barn. He had worked about 30 minutes before being overcome.
• A municipal employee at an indoor water treatment plant lost consciousness while trying to exit from a 59,000-cubic-foot room where he had been working with an 8-horse-power, gasoline-powered pump. Doors adjacent to the work area were open while he worked. His hospital diagnosis was CO poisoning.
• Five workers were treated for CO poisoning after using two 8 horse-power, gasoline-powered, pressure washers in a poorly ventilated underground parking garage.
• A plumber used a gasoline-powered concrete saw in a basement with open doors and windows and a cooling fan. He experienced a severe headache and dizziness and began to act in a paranoid manner. His symptoms were related to CO poisoning.
Be safe and be aware this winter season to prevent CO poisoning from occurring.
