Curious Parents Family Health Resources

Brought to you by Curious Parents

sponsored by

Family Health

Safety Tips to Prevent Carbon Monoxide Poisoning from the Poison Control Center

As the weather becomes colder, we are alerted once again to the threat of carbon monoxide poisoning. Carbon monoxide is an odorless and colorless gas that can deprive the body of oxygen. Exposure can produce headaches, sleepiness, fatigue, confusion, and irritability at low levels. At higher levels, it can result in nausea, vomiting, irregular heartbeat, impaired vision and coordination, and death.

Sources of carbon monoxide in the home can be un-vented kerosene and gas space heaters, gas water heaters, wood stoves, leaking chimneys and furnaces, fireplaces, and gas stoves as well as automobile exhaust from attached or un-vented garages and “patched” vent pipes using tape, gum or other substances.

Steps to reduce exposure are simple and can be life saving. Remember to open flues when fireplaces are in use and have the chimney inspected and cleaned annually. Do not idle the car inside the garage. Charcoal should never be used indoors, or in areas with inadequate ventilation. Make sure you’re using the correct fuel in kerosene heaters and have a trained professional inspect, clean, and tune-up central heating systems like the furnace every year. Also, gas appliances must have adequate ventilation so that carbon monoxide will not accumulate.

The New Jersey Poison Information and Education System encourages everyone to consider installing carbon monoxide detectors in his or her home. For more information on Air Pollution and Indoor Air Quality call the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) Information Hotline at 1-800-438-4318. For more information on sources of carbon monoxide poisoning, visit NJPIES’s site on the World Wide Web at www.njpies.org or call the NJ Poison Control Center Hotline at 1-800-222-1222 for more information.