Carbon Monoxide Poison: Safety Alert

  • Published
  • By Brian Meverden
  • 82nd Training Wing Safety Office
SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  Dubbed the "silent killer," carbon monoxide is a toxin with no sound, taste, smell or visual signs and it can take lives without warning. It is sometimes called carbonic oxide, exhaust gas, or flue gas and it can kill within minutes in high concentrations.

CO is produced by the incomplete combustion of any fuel containing carbon. This includes gasoline, natural gas, oil and propane, as well as coal and wood products.

Sources of CO in the home include gas and oil burning appliances like furnaces, dryers, water heaters, ovens, wood burning stoves, charcoal grills and automobiles.

Be alert to the danger signs that may signal a potential CO problem:

· Streaks of carbon or soot around the service door of your fuel-burning appliances
· The absence of a draft in your chimney
· Excessive rusting on flue pipes or appliance jackets
· Moisture collecting on windows and walls of furnace rooms
· Fallen soot from the fireplace
· Small amounts of water leaking from the base of the chimney, vent or flue pipe
· Damaged or discolored bricks at the top of the chimney
· Rust on the exterior portion of the vent pipes

The most important steps you can take are preventive. Have a qualified service professional inspect fuel-burning appliances at least once a year. Appliances deteriorate with time and can be a health risk to those who live in the home. Install Underwriter Laboratory (UL) certified CO alarms outside of sleeping areas and near fuel-burning appliances. They are designed to detect elevated levels of CO and sound an alarm to alert a potential poisoning risk.

Although CO indicator cards and other devices on the market are also intended to detect elevated levels of CO, most aren't designed with an audible alarm. The presence of an audible alarm may be significant -- especially while family members sleep.

Although they may look and sound similar, CO alarms and smoke alarms are designed and intended to detect two separate, distinct hazards. It's important to install both UL listed CO alarms and UL listed smoke detectors to help protect from both hazards.