Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Carbon Monoxide News March 21, 2018, 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.

“Vows made in storms are forgotten in calm.”

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 breathe.

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…

Bob Dwyer
Carbon Monoxide Safety Association

COSA provides Carbon Monoxide safety education and training.

World Wide Reports - Pollution and Health Effects 
Carbon Monoxide News Links –
More news links below

Carbon monoxide alarms essential to prevent 'silent killer'
CBC.ca
Greater Sudbury Fire Services is sending out a reminder about carbon monoxide alarms after a fatal tragedy in Barrie over the weekend. - So far in 2018, fire crews have responded to 15 calls where the deadly gas was present in homes in Greater Sudbury. - In 2017, Greater Sudbury Fire Services responded to 47 incidents where carbon monoxide was present in the home. - … in Barrie over the weekend…An infant boy died, and his sister and mother were hospitalized with carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning.

Homework to Reduce the Risk of House Fires
Aptos Times
This may seem like a small and insignificant detail to add to your “to do” list, but operable and reliable detection systems save lives in house fires. Our crews have witnessed tragic losses of life and property as a result of inoperable smoke alarms and notification systems. So here’s a homework assignment: please test your smoke alarms by the end of March, it only takes a moment! - The modern residential fire has changed dramatically over the past few decades. With the invent of new lightweight construction, modern synthetic home furnishings, and building materials being used in larger, more open homes the Fire Service is seeing an increase in dangerous and quickly evolving fires within residential structures… Better yet, swap out the old batteries for fresh ones just to be certain your family is protected and afforded early notification in the event of a house fire. Also, as a quick reminder, when you hear an intermittent “chirping” noise coming from a smoke alarm, this is its way of telling you it needs new batteries…

Edinburgh school threatens to fine parents for idling car engines
Edinburgh Evening News
BRIGHT signs have been put up, warning parents they face on-the-spot fines if they keep their engine running at the school gate. But at James Gillespie’s Primary School yesterday afternoon, some cars still chose to ignore the warnings, despite health concerns for children. - Keeping a car engine idling can produce up to twice as many exhaust emissions as a moving vehicle. Toxic air pollutants such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and carbon dioxide are linked to health issues including breathing difficulties, heart disease and cancer….

Sonia's death from heater prompts urgent inquest
The Sydney Morning Herald
Ms Sofianopoulos was lying naked and deceased, face down on a towel on the floor between the bathroom and the bedroom. - The unit’s old Vulcan gas heater was running on high and a pot of burnt chickpeas was sitting on a low heat on the gas stove. - On Tuesday, it was ruled that her death will be the subject of an urgent coronial inquest, to be heard over five days in May. - Coroner Jacqui Hawkins said at a directions hearing that the inquest carried a sense of urgency - winter is coming and there is a risk that one or more of perhaps tens of thousands of similar open-flued gas heaters being used in Victoria could kill again. - On the cold July morning that she died last year, Sonia.. didn’t answer the door of her Greensborough unit, even though her car was there…

Safety Education - Poster Contest Listing
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
We challenged middle school students to create posters warning people about the dangers of poisonous carbon monoxide (CO). Did students ever step up to the challenge! We received 700 poster entries – a record number!        Watch the video of the winning posters.

Please Note: "Place a carbon monoxide alarm with a digital display on a seat in the motor vehicle when you are out driving in emergency snow conditions (or always for that specific). Harmful levels of carbon monoxide (CO) can penetrate inside a motor vehicle just due to prevailing winds and exhaust not moving away from the vehicle but under it. If you want to learn more about carbon monoxide, begin measuring it with a personal CO monitor everywhere you go." Bob Dwyer, CSME Carbon Monoxide Safety 
  
Scroll Down For More of Today's CO & Air Quality News Links 
Please, stop diagnostic errors; start testing for carboxyhemoglobin
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 (1933-2017)

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: Carbon Monoxide Survivor

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
"Love Song To The Earth" - Official Lyric Video

CO, Air Quality & Pollution News Links

Fire Department 'Standing Down' Until Crews Get Updated Gear
NBC10 Boston
A fire department in Maine has an emergency of its own. Firefighters have been ordered to "stand down" and stop responding to calls until they get updated gear. - Limington Selectman Bruce Rozett said town officials learned on Friday that the department was using dangerously outdated equipment. Federal guidelines require boots, coats, pants and helmets be retired every 10 years, but much of Limington's firefighter gear was purchased in 2005. - "Rather than put one of our firefighters in jeopardy, we would have the fire department stand down," said Rozett…

Pruitt’s Clean Air Promises Ring Hollow as EPA Eases Off Smog Protections
InsideClimate News
"Let's get back to the fundamentals of what we should be about as an agency," he declared to supporters at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference. - Pruitt has repeated the promise even as the EPA has been leading a unprecedented unraveling of not just climate regulation, but of the agency's basic clean air and water mandates. Under Pruitt, the EPA has ignored or denied pleas from several states to address ground-level ozone, or smog, a pollutant at the core of the agency's work since its inception 48 years ago…

South Phoenix scrapyard fire sends smoke skyward
AZFamily
The fire was burning in a mass of junked cars located in scrapyard and had not spread to any structures. - Phoenix Fire spokesman Capt. Rob McDade said "the fire started in a junked car and was spreading into another scrap pile that contained oils and solvents." McDade said it was difficult to get to the actual fire through the scrap yard packed with junked cars, "we had to pull junk apart to get to the fire itself."

Burning trash starts fire in Dresden
Zanesville Times Recorder
DRESDEN - The fire occurred just after 6 p.m., as Dresden fire personnel fought the blaze for around an hour, Lacy said. He said the origin of the fire was the result of burning trash on the property. - No homes were damaged and the storage building wasn't a total loss.

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.

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 ...
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.

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

Tribute
George Kerr, a pioneer in smoke and carbon monoxide alarm manufacturing passed away in his home during the early morning of July 4, 2017. George will always be remembered for his passion to save lives and protect the health of people through low level carbon monoxide detection and alarming. He lived for over 84 years, beginning his career in fire safety in 1953. “We’ll never know how many lives we’re saving, but I know we are saving a few.” George E. Kerr (1933-2017)

These following links may be of some use to you:
- The World Clock - Time Zones


- 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 |
North Carolina | Oregon | Pennsylvania | Rhode Island |Tennessee
Texas
| Utah |Vermont | Virginia | Washington |West Virginia | Wisconsin |

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
Masimo - see RAD 57
Mahugh Fire & Safety
ESCO Institute
TPI - Test Products International
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