Carbon Monoxide the silent killer.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to represent HomeTalk on our NY local station Channel 11 PIX TV. The reason for our visit to the studio was to try to explain just what CO is all about and explain some of the symptoms associated with it. The plan was for a six point talk about 4 to five min on the subject, but in typical TV fashion they were running late and cut us off before we could touch on all of the important facts everyone should know.
CO poisoning depending upon how concentrated it is can occur very quickly or it can slowly build up over time making you more ill every day as time goes on. And the latter is normally how it happens.
Typical signs of this is light head feeling, Slightly nauseated, Perhaps dizzy and just plane tired. Its pretty much the same feeling you get when your coming down with a cold. But here is where it gets interesting. And to understand why you need to know what is happening. The CO in the air gets into your lungs, It replaces the space within your blood that normally would hold oxygen. The issue becomes important as your blood cells fill with the CO less and less O2 can get into your blood. This explains why you begin to feel ill.
Anyway, because the CO takes a lot more time to leave the blood cells then it takes to get into it, your blood over time begins to accumulate the CO.
So you get up in the AM feeling like your coming down with something, but like everyone else you need to pay the bills so you go to work. Towards the end of the day you begin to feel a little better as the CO is leaving your blood being replaced by O2, But not all of the CO has left. The next day you wake to feel even worse then the first. The concentration of the CO is greater then the first because of your blood not giving all of the first days CO up. Each day you go to work feeling worse and worse, but you manage to hang in there to the weekend where you plan to simply stay in bed to fight that cold. Well that is all it takes, Your not getting that fresh air and your staying in the CO latent air and eventually you pass out and expire.
This can happen in a few days or in the case of the store in the mall in NY in a very little amount of time.
So what can you do to protect yourself?
As the video shows, get a CO alarm installed on every level. CO is very much like air and floats around very easily. Many people think it will only be found around the furnace. That is not simply true.
The next thing is check the operation of your heating equipment. A few things you can do yourself. Check the flue pipes that run from the furnace or hot water heater to the chimney. Wear some thick gloves so you do not get burnt and press and squeeze the pipes. The metal pipes, particularly those on the hot water heater tend to rust out, yet they look fine. You might notice tiny rust spots on the pipe. That is a sign that the pipe is about to fail If you can crush the pipe easily in your fingers, you need to change this pipe out.
Ok assuming the pipe is ok the next thing you want to do is to check the flame, if you can see it. Newer heating appliances have sealed combustion chambers where its hard or impossible to see the flame. In any case if you can, turn the appliance on and look at the flame. It should be a bright blue in color, With perhaps some lighter blue mixed in. The flame should be almost noisy and not bending to one side or another. The entire flame should look the same. If your seeing that, your system is running well and very little CO is being produced. However if the flame is wavy and has a lot of yellow mixed in, the heating appliance needs to be fixed. The yellow flame or a flame that is moving all around is a sign that the heating appliance is not providing a complete combustion which will result in higher CO levels and at one point enough to kill you.
This flame test should also be done on your gas stove cook top and oven. Ever wonder why you do not die when your cooking that holiday meal? That is because the bright blue flame your seeing is producing very little CO so the byproducts are somewhat safer then those of a yellow flame. If you have a yellow flame on the stove, clean the burners or get a pro in to adjust the air ratio on the stove.
Another thing is humidity. We all know that our homes tend to dry out in the winter months which is why we always add humidifiers on the heating system to add that moisture. Well when we burn gas we also create moisture as one of the byproducts of the combustion process. This moisture normally goes harmlessly up the chimney. That is why you see all the white smoke in the early am coming out of everyone's chimney when its really cold outside. If your chimney becomes blocked for what ever reason or the flue falls apart because of the rust, (now you know why it rusts) This moisture will build up in the house much faster then you could ever do with a humidifier installed. The very first place where you will see this is on your windows. The cooler glass surfaces will condense the moisture quite quickly. So if your seeing excessive moisture on the windows in the winter, check the chimney. Remember that holiday supper? Think about the kitchen window, Remember it steaming up? That is because of the cooking and the added moisture from the stove. Ask a cook, cooking with gas in an oven keeps things from drying out as fast as electrical ones do.
In any case, check your CO alarm and be safe, those at HomeTalk want you around a bit longer.