CO

Larry (from OSHA)

I wonder how long the "CO again post" will be this year. As I recall, it was over 300 entries last year. No doubt, there will be those who say there are many more things that cause injury or death to people, but, for those so closely connected to the primary causes, I wonder what you are doing this year, this heating season to actually decrease the number of "CO again posts". (Aside from tuning, cleaning, and testing heating appliances) I think that consumer awareness is the key, and that enlisting the mass media is one way of increasing that awareness. On Monday I will be contacting the local tv and newspapers along with the department of health to see if anyone has an interest in being on the front side of this issue. Do you think it is worth the effort or a waste of time? Do you think that one person can make a difference? In my day job dealing with worker safety I know that every once in a while I do make a difference by what I do. I'm going to try a new venue.


Larry

Mark Hunt

Larry


If you save one life, I would bewilling to bet that the family of that one life would say that "one persons" efforts were anything but wasted.

I have been telling people that the Federal Government mandated that an industry change the way it made water heaters because of 17 deaths per year attributed to water heater explosions. I also said that the law of averages dictates that sooner or later a Senetoes kid was going to get hit with CO and then the Feds would get involved.

Well................

The Father-in-law of U.S. Attorney John Suthers was killed by CO on Friday, and his wife and eight others were poisoned as well. (I posted about this already)

And always remember Larry, you're not alone.

Time to co-ordinate and organize.

I'll be in touch.

Be well my friend!

Mark H

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Dean_7

CO Poisoning

Last Easter my mother-in-law died. She had had pulmonary problems for several years, used oxygen and had a oxygen concentrator at home. Howerver during the course of her last hospitalization we discovered that her carboxyhemoglobin level was severely elevated. Carboxyhemoglobin levels measure how much CO is present in the body. While this did not cause her death it CONTRIBUTED to it. Upon investigating we discovered that their furnace had been producing low levels of CO and her oxygen concentrator had been sitting next to a heating register. Oxygen concentrators concentrate the oxygen in air BUT they also concentrate all other gasses present. Thus the low level CO present became high level CO in this case. The point of this is people need EFFECTIVE LOW LEVEL CO detectors NOT the ones generally available at most home centers. Low level CO poisoning is insidious in it's effects and chronic CO poisoning kills people. Information about low level CO detectors is available on this site. I also ask that all the heating people who read this who have customers that are elderly or have compromised respritory status and may use oxygen concentrators tell them that they should be elevated off the floor and not be located near heating registers. The problem furnace we discovered had a cracked heat exchanger and was replaced. I'm going to say this again CO KILLS don't take chances educate yourself about it's effects,have your heating systems checked completely, and get a low level CO detector. I'm an RN who works in an ICU and if your poisoned by CO unless your very, very, very lucky that's where you will end up. And I can tell you that what ever you pay for CO detectors and a service call it will be a lot less that a stay in the hospital. Besides how much is your life worth.

Mark Hunt

Thanks for posting that!


Chronic exposure ruins many peoples lives and 99% of the time goes undetected.

Thanks again Dean.


Mark H

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ed wallace

co

went to a house today to do a start up check on 2 gas boilers customer had disconnected a gas fired water heater that leaked vent pipe is hanging out of chimney hi levels of co in basement

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Larry (from OSHA)

Starting the season off right

Ed,

Very lucky for your customer that you were there. Do you suppose that you'll see more of this over the heating season?

Way to go.

Larry

Mark Hunt

Larry


We'll only see it if we look for it.

Many don't look.

Nice catch Ed. How does it feel to save a life?


Mark H

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ed wallace

co

mark it feels very good thank you for sharing your wisdom

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Mark Hunt

Thank you Ed


for applying YOUR wisdom.

People are safer because of YOU.

We'll meet again, and the first drink is on me!

Be well.


Mark H

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