Carbon monoxide detector

Absam

Absam.

I didn't know you could buy travel alarms. Thanks for the information.

Oh absam I am so very sorry ?

Oh absam!

absam

absam

absam there are no words

Yes, my daughter died of carbon monoxide poisoning, two months after her wedding. She had bought a smoke alarm that came with a free carbon monoxide alarm, but they hadn't yet installed the CO alarm. Yes, we don't want to scare people and we are told 50 people die a year but there are no postmortem tests for carbon monoxide poisoning and an A&E doctor once told us that he suspected that many elderly people die of carbon monoxide but their deaths are recorded as old age or heart problems. Additionally, there are many people that don't die but experience low level poisoning that can lead to dementia, stroke, heart attacks. And yes, one death is too many. All CO alarms must be bought from a reputable manufacturer and it might be an idea to get a sealed unit because of you keep replacing batteries in both smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, the sensors deteriorate. We also take a travel alarm when staying away from home, even when with friends, as they might not have their appliances regularly serviced and maintained, which is the first line of defence - the second being the alarm.

Thank goodness you had a detector JG it just goes to show you can't overstate the risk.

Another danger is from BBQs taken into tents for cooking. Even those little BBQ packs you buy from supermarkets emit sufficient CO to kill in an enclosed space.

An interesting thread ... because...on Thursday morning last week at just around 8.a.m. we heard an alarm sounding - we checked all 'known' alarms and found nothing wrong. Then DH opened the door into the porch and it was the carbon monoxide detector! The oil-fired boiler is located there - we immediately turned off the boiler and called an engineer in. There was nothing he could do then but he came back this morning (no heat or hot water since then).

He fitted new parts, cleaned the flue etc. etc. taking around 3+ hours. Twenty minutes after leaving a working boiler, it failed again. Another switch off. A new boiler is required. As we had DGD staying here on Thursday I am very relieved that the detector sounded - certainly worth having one. If you don't already have one then I would highly recommend.

It is the 'cry wolf' principle. If you over state a risk that the other person can see clearly is incorrect that same person will not believe you when you speak the truth.

How can emphasising the possibility of a hazard that results in death, undermine the safety campaign?

If it's your daughter or grandchild who has died, as happened to one GNetter in the thread link I posted above, then it's no consolation that they were one of 'only 50'

Well over half a million people died in the UK last year and 1 million houses have a wood burner or open fire.

Only 50 people died from carbon monoxide poisoning in 2015. Even if all these died as a result of badly fitted wood burners, which is highly unlikely it still could not by any stretch of the imagination be described as a 'quite high' death rate. I think that HETAS engineer was guilty of exaggeration.

I am not dismissing the danger of carbon monoxide poisoning.Many more than died end up in hospital with CM poisoning. Also many more used to die from this poisoning before the development of suitable detectors and the campaigns run to make us aware of the problems, but silly exaggerations by people who ought to know better, undermine the continuing safety campaign.

Many years ago 3 of us came very close to death. We were on a boat at the time and the weather was freezing so we left on the Tilly bowl fire. In the night the 'flame went out but it continued to pump out the fumes.
All 3 of us were found semi conscious and taken to hospital. If another friend hadn't come along when he did, that would have been that.

I started a thread on the same subject last month after my neighbours had to,evacuate their house.

www.gransnet.com/forums//forums/health/1232927-Do-we-all-have-working-carbon-monoxide-detectors

Glad you survived. You have brought up an important point. The law now requires a carbon monoxide detector to be in the same room as a wood burning stove. Our HETAS engineer wants house purchase surveys to include the safety of wood burners, as it does gas boilers. Apparently the death rate from badly fitted wood burners is quite high.

Good point Antonia. Hope you are getting your fire checked out.