Every year in this
country tens of thousands of people get sick enough to seek
medical attention and more than 500 die from accidental carbon
monoxide (CO) poisoning.
Granted, more people die from heart disease and certainly more
people get sick with the flu.
But there is one difference here, almost every one of these
accidental deaths and illnesses could have been prevented!
I have been working in this field for years and in that time I
have been to many peoples homes where there was sufficient CO in
the air to make them sick. And in almost every instance the moment
I walked in the door I realized there was a problem, yet the
people who lived there had no idea!
It's true, carbon monoxide gas is tasteless, colorless and
odorless. However, it is a product of incomplete combustion and
there are often other fumes mixed with it that you can detect.
(You can normally smell car exhaust and it's loaded with CO gas.)
Another thing that is often noticeable is moisture. If your
heating system isn't venting the fumes to the outdoors like it
should be there can be a buildup of moisture in the house. When
this happens there is excessive water on the inside of the windows
( when usually the air is dry in the house in winter) and the air
feels humid. Soot (a black, greasy powder) is sometimes noticeable
in the home or around the furnace.
So you can see that as a general rule there are some telltale
signs that something is not right. So how does it happen that the
people in the house never noticed anything unusual?
It's because the buildup of these signs is usually a very gradual
process. The moisture and the odors in the house slowly get worse
over a period of time that's long enough not to attract your
attention.
You get used to the warning signs in the home as well as the
physical distress they can cause at the same rate the conditions
worsen!
Of course, there are also the accidents that are quick to develop,
like leaving the car running in the attached garage or running the
lawnmower engine in the basement. These can cause very sudden
deaths.
