Blog: Carbon Monoxide Poisoning -- A Hidden Hazard in Your Home

Posted by: Angela Mickalide at Dec 29, 2011 12:00 AM CST

Keywords: Education

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During a mid-1990s Safe Kids leadership conference, every staff member received a free, new safety device to keep their families safer at home -- a carbon monoxide (CO) detector. In a matter of a few months, five reported that the alarm had sounded due to the presence of this invisible and odorless gas in their own homes. Fortunately, all families were able to survive the experience due to this early warning system.

Although my family was not among those affected, I have installed and carefully maintained CO alarms in my own home since that time in order to ward off this silent killer.

CO is produced when burning any fuel, such as gasoline, propane, natural gas, oil, wood, and charcoal. CO causes illness by decreasing the amount of oxygen present in a person’s body. Young children are especially vulnerable to the effects of CO and may show symptoms sooner than a healthy adult. Because of their smaller bodies, children process CO differently than adults and may be more severely affected by it. As cold weather blankets the United States, parents and caregivers should follow our simple tips to keep everyone safe

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Comment on this Blog Post:

Posted by Andrea Johnson at: January 8, 2012

Although the risks are relatively low, still too many people needlessly die what are very very preventable deaths. Hopefully the government will soon introduce mandatory installation of CO detectors by landlords and follow the same stance as many states in America at present. Thanks - Andrea Carbon Monoxide Detection - http://www.carbonmonoxidedetection.co.uk

Posted by wendy Lofquist at: December 31, 2011

We have 8 kids we keep ours in our basement near the furnace as thats where they told us to keep it every so oftne it beeps we go once a month to check it usually just the batteries just done know how to read it..Basically if the alarm doesnt go off then we are set so I think hope I am right.

Posted by Cathy Alexander at: December 30, 2011

This was a good reminder to me. Some of my family members use the kind of heat that could cause this. I will find out if they have a CO alarm. Thank You. Angelcare Monitor Deluxe http://angelcaremonitordeluxe.com/ Webmaster of Angelcare Monitor Deluxe