Friday, May 26, 2017

Carbon Monoxide News May 26, 2017, posts updated frequently

Every day is a carbon monoxide safety education day.
Scroll back in time through our archives for previous CO News links.
We can learn from others mistakes and efforts to prevent poisoning.

Carbon monoxide safety, we are all in this together.

“It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.” C. S. Lewis (1898-1963, bio link)

"Flight of the Bumblebee" Nikolai Rimski-Korsakow - music link

Daily News Links Are Below These Opening Questions And Warnings
How much carbon monoxide are you in when in any motor vehicle?

Did you know that many people do not measure the air they live in?
After prevention there is no greater awareness than measurement.
 
Awareness leads to quick thinking. Measurement leads to quick action.

Are you in the know?
Do I know enough about carbon monoxide and carbon monoxide poisoning to justify never knowing how much is in the air I breathe every day, everywhere I go?”

There are some people who want to be notified of the presence of carbon monoxide at levels or concentrations as soon as the gas is present, at concentrations well below those that can instigate poor health symptoms but not be high enough levels to sound the CO alarm they own. 

There are some people who do not want to push a button on their CO alarm to see what low, aggravating levels of the poison might be in their home, or anywhere. 

The most recommended CO Alarm in U.S. is a high level alarm
Standard for Single and Multiple Station Carbon Monoxide Alarms 
UL 2034
1.3 Carbon monoxide alarms covered by this standard are not intended to alarm when exposed to long-term, low-level carbon monoxide exposures or slightly higher short-term transient carbon monoxide exposures, possibly caused by air pollution and/or properly installed/maintained fuel-fired appliances and fireplaces… 


Carbon Monoxide News Links –
More news links below

Michigan lawmakers are taking action after Niles carbon monoxide poisoning 
WSBT-TV
State lawmakers say they don't want something like this to happen again… "The death of the 13-year-old Bryan Watts, of Niles, was just a tragedy that could have been avoided if that hotel had had carbon monoxide detectors,” said Berrien Springs Representative Dave Pagel… Pagel is working on a bill that he says will prevent more deaths. He says it's lucky there wasn't a worse tragedy this time around… "This group of children were overtaken without being aware and they became unconscious. We came very close to having six deaths rather than just one,” he said… 14 people total were taken to the hospital, including multiple first responders…

Keene Planning Board OKs natural gas facility
The Union Leader
The improperly blended propane gas caused high carbon monoxide levels in some gas company customers' homes and businesses… Keene firefighters and EMS personnel rescued an unconscious woman while responding to a report of an odor of gas at Tilden’s Hallmark store on Main Street… A total of 64 departments from New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Vermont responded with fire and EMS apparatus, personnel and equipment…

Are Firefighters More at Risk of Developing Dementia?
Alzheimer's News Today
According to an article on firechief.com, although there has yet to be any official studies into the link between firefighting and dementia, a 2015 article highlights the risks of exposure to certain toxins and their link to dementia. These toxins are familiar to most firefighters and they will have undoubtedly come into contact with them at some point in their careers… Toxicants that have already been linked to neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia include aluminum, lead, mercury, flame retardants, solvents, plasticizers and air pollutants such as carbon monoxide…

Scuba Divers
Carbon Monoxide: The Silent Killer
Alert Diver Online
Scuba divers are faced with a complicating factor: the surface equivalent value (SEV), which means we need to compute our CO exposure based on the depths to which we dive. In a dive on air to 130 feet, with the compressed air having been drawn from the compressor's surrounding environment, a value of 5 ppm (usually quoted as the safe limit) would have roughly the same effect as 25 ppm at the surface. Thus, divers who do multiple dives per year could exceed the accepted safe limits… CO is produced in several ways. Incomplete combustion of any fuel (gas, diesel, kerosene and other hydrocarbons) usually appears at the top of the list and is most often quoted as the source. Diving businesses, especially those in remote areas, may have any number of motor vehicles, boats and gas- or diesel-powered compressors or generators…

Scroll Down For More of Today's CO & Air Quality News Links

Please, stop diagnostic errors; start testing for carboxyhemoglobin
Carbon Monoxide Intoxication
Journal of Neurology and Neuroscience
Carbon monoxide (CO) intoxication is one of the main causes of poisoning in industrialized countries and it often leads to diagnostic errors… 

Carbon monoxide intoxication.
nih.gov
However individuals with ischemic heart disease may experience chest pain and decreased exercise duration at COHb levels between 1% and 9%. COHb levels between 30% and 70% lead to loss of consciousness and eventually death… 

Carbon Monoxide Safety Tips
National Fire Protection Association… If the CO alarm sounds, immediately move to a fresh air location outdoors or by an open window or door. Make sure everyone inside the home is accounted for. Call for help from a fresh air location and stay there until emergency personnel….

NOTE: Listed U.L. 2034 & CSA 6.19 Carbon Monoxide Alarms 
VISUAL DISPLAY:
Must not display under 30PPM in normal operation
AT 70, 150 & 400 PPM display must be accurate within plus or minus 30 Percent 

SENSITIVITY TESTING: Resist alarming first times shown, must by second shown time
70PPM [PLUS OR MINUS 5PPM ... [BETWEEN 60 _ 240 MINUTES]
150PPM [PLUS OR MINUS 5PPM] ... [10 - 50 MINUTES]
400PPM [PLUS OR MINUS 10PPM ... [4 _ 15 MINUTES]

“CITIZENS WILL CONTINUE TO DIE & BECOME SERIOUSLY ILL DAILY!” George Kerr - CO Experts 
More news links below –

We have all been CO poisoned, some more than others
The following link takes you to a site with views from those who have been poisoned. The seriousness of carbon monoxide poisoning, the grief, suffering and disorientations experienced are clearly portrayed with the intent to help others and prevent future poisonings. With respect, please visit: 

What is in the air you are breathing right now?
What will you be doing today; walking into poison?
Who will be responsible for the air you breathe?
You may be the only person who can prevent your own poisoning. 

We are all vulnerable to carbon monoxide exposure and poisoning.
Everyone has been poisoned by CO and will be poisoned again. The degree of the poisoning depends upon allowing yourself to be in a situation where someone else controls the air you breathe and the mechanisms for alarming notification.

Please read the alarm information on the package and in the instructions that come with the carbon monoxide alarm. Know that if it is a U.L. 2034 Listed product (or CSA 6.19 Listed), it is a high level alarm that has been tested to alarm no sooner than 70 PPM at the lowest (the alarm must resist for one hour when above this level) and when over 400 PPM before 15 minutes at the highest concentration, after resisting alarming for 4 minutes when over this level.

Know when your fire department and emergency responders begin wearing their breathing apparatus and what their civilian evacuation levels are for carbon monoxide; it may be as soon as the gas is present in your presence. Pregnant women, infants & children, people with heart & respiratory struggles, those suffering depression or chronic headaches and all people of vulnerable health should be alerted as soon as the gas begins to concentrate, around 10 PPM (parts per million) or lower.

You most likely need a low level carbon monoxide detector to sound off when carbon monoxide hazards are just beginning, not after you’ve been exposed to levels that make you have headaches, flu-like symptoms, increased tiredness, heart stresses or worse.

Do not take risks with carbon monoxide. Take responsibility for the air you breathe and the combustion systems you are responsible for. If you don’t do it for yourself, do it for others, unless you think $45.00, high level protection is good enough.

Help prevent injuries and deaths; don’t guess about carbon monoxide. Measure carbon monoxide for safety and knowledge. The more you test the more you learn. 
GET BUSY
Measurement is continuing education at its best. Bob Dwyer, CSME Carbon Monoxide Safety

CO and Air Quality News Links

Hookah Smoking, Carbon Monoxide, and Coronary Endothelial Function
BioPortfolio
Accordingly, the study team now turn our attention to acute and chronic effects of hookah smoking on coronary endothelial function… BACKGROUND/SIGNIFICANCE Carbon monoxide (CO) is an endogenously produced gas that play important physiological roles in the circulation. Traditionally considered a poisonous gas that causes tissue hypoxia, CO produced by vascular cells as a byproduct of heme catabolism, also functions to regulate blood flow by inhibiting vasomotor tone, smooth muscle cells proliferation, and platelet aggregation…

Compromise doused on Rock Falls burn ban
SaukValley.com
Health professional Judy Randall presented some leaf-burning information to the committee, at the request of 2nd Ward Alderman Brian Snow… Randall, who has worked as an advocate on several grant-funded programs to ban smoking in public places, said she worked with the American Lung Association and the Environmental Protection Agency to compile her information on three major pollutants generated by leaf-burning: particulate matter, carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons… “The wetter the leaves are, the higher the content of all three,” Randall said. “The pollutants can stay in your lungs up to 4 months after they are inhaled.”…

Why is Southern California's air quality so bad? It's smog season
LA Daily News
If our air seems terrible, well, it is. Smog season 2017 has arrived with a vengeance… So far this year, Southern California has endured 27 days with unhealthful levels of ozone, the hallmark pollutant of smog, making this spring the worst start of a smog season since 2008, according to state data…

US Energy Information Administration
Energy Information Administration - EIA - Official Energy Statistics from the U.S. Government...

Sit and rest a while; miss the children, prevent repeating this tragedy. 
Corfu carbon monoxide deaths: Memorial unveiled in Horbury 
BBC News 
A memorial bench to two young children who died from carbon monoxide poisoning while on holiday in Corfu has been unveiled in West Yorkshire…

To all parents everywhere; grief's pain alerts others
Out of tragedy comes the light of love 
Chester County Press 
Inside, Carly and Daulton had passed away from carbon monoxide poisoning. The gas tank was empty and the ignition was still on. Fumes from the exhaust had been drawn into the car through the air vents… “One of the best things for me is to talk to parents who have also lost a child,” Donna said.

How to use a Fire Extinguisher
VideoNex
In this informative and succinct video, learn how to identify and appropriately execute the use of a CO2 Fire Extinguisher…

Cdc Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
New Movie Release 2015
Carbon Monoxide Poisoning. Public domain video from CDC. Carbon monoxide (sometimes referred to as CO) is a colorless, odorless gas produced ... 

CO EXperts
Johnson County Kansas - Continuing Education – – Video Link


A well put together video is found with the next link, but remember: U.L. 2034 Listed CO Alarms are high level alarms. Use them for protection against acute levels, but be aware you can still experience symptoms of the poisoning even though the devices are in place.
About Carbon Monoxide and Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
DailyMotion
About Carbon Monoxide and Carbon Monoxide Poisoning 

JEMS.com - ...site has been designed with this in mind – to create a visual, interactive, educational resource which can hopefully end incidents of carbon monoxide poisoning and save lives… For more information, please visit - www.thesilentkiller.co.uk 


Who is responsible for the air you breathe? 
Take control inside your homes. 
-Link to:  CO alarm standards  

The lowest U.L. 2034 & CSA 6.19 carbon monoxide alarm test point is: 
- 70 PPM to 149 PPM –resist one hour, must alarm before 4 hours 
Please read the alarm information on the package and in the instructions. Know when your fire department and emergency responders begin wearing their breathing apparatus and what their civilian evacuation levels are for carbon monoxide; it may be before 70 PPM. It is for pregnant women, infants & children, the elderly and all people of vulnerable health. Bob Dwyer, CSME Carbon Monoxide Safety 


Consider low level protection for carbon monoxide and smoldering fire detection problems; don't leave anyone behind. CO Experts


These following links may be of some use to you: 
U.S. Drought Monitor
- Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive
- Current Data for Atmospheric CO2
- Federal Aviation Administration CO warning
- Carbon monoxide toxicity-Emergency Medicine Ireland
- Carbon Monoxide Survivor- Views from those who have been poisoned.
- Carbon Monoxide detection- National Fire Protection Association

· Please take CARBON MONOXIDE SAFETY CARE during all holiday and everyday activities.

National Conference of State Legislatures
Thirty-two (32) U.S. states along with the District of Columbia have statutes that require carbon monoxide detectors in certain buildings. Updated May 2017
Alaska | California | Colorado | Connecticut | Delaware | District of Columbia Florida |
Georgia | Illinois | Iowa | Louisiana |  Maine | Maryland | Massachusetts | Michigan |
Minnesota | Montana | Nebraska | New Jersey | New Hampshire | New York | 
Red Cross - Disaster Relief to safely assist law enforcement, fire department, utility company, city, county and state authorities as repair and rebuilding moves forward. Bob Dwyer, CSME Carbon Monoxide Safety

Nationally, the Red Cross provides food and shelter to people affected by as many as 70,000 fires annually, or about one fire every eight minutes.

The following companies are acknowledged for their continued support of carbon monoxide safety education and this daily news blog. They may just have what you are looking for.
 
Fieldpiece Instruments 
The Energy Conservatory 
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