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Carbon monoxide poisoning: Death lurks in homes and boats
By DAVE SHELTON
| Article published on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2006 |
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Editor’s note: This is the first part of a two-part series.
PINELLAS COUNTY – Two teen lovers died in a parking lot last October, unaware of the poison gas seeping through the floor of the van they were sleeping in. They just fell asleep and died in Tampa.
A prominent Tampa religious leader lit a kerosene-fueled refrigerator in December and died while sleeping in the tiny New England vacation cottage.
In February, a New Hampshire man died and two relatives nearly died when someone left a car running in their Tampa homes’ attached garage.
When authorities found a boat aground in Idaho one Memorial Day weekend, they discovered its owner still at the wheel, but he was dead. In the stern were three more bodies where the family had hunkered-down for the night in sleeping bags under the stars.
The Pinellas County Medical Examiner’s Office said there was one death last year in Pinellas County from carbon monoxide poisoning. A man appeared to have fallen asleep after driving his car into his garage. His body was found the next morning in the driver’s seat.
Scores of deaths every year are attributed to hurricanes that had knocked-out electrical service and the victims used portable generators to power their homes. Records show that generators employed in homes last year killed five people in Florida after hurricanes and in 2004 seven died of carbon monoxide produced by generators used after hurricanes Charley, Frances and Ivan. Another 167 were felled, but not killed, by carbon monoxide during power outages during those three 2004 hurricanes.
And, a new boating fad, authorities warn, has killed several people surfing in the wake – and the exhaust – of boats.
Carbon monoxide is a stealthy killer. It’s invisible and has no odor. Once the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning appear it’s usually too late. If it isn’t deadly, it will cause permanent brain damage.
The national Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, reports that hundreds of people die every year from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning and every death could have been prevented.
In recent years carbon monoxide deaths have become most prevalent from portable generators and heaters, fewer from malfunctioning home furnaces as building codes have become more strict on furnace installation, according to the CDC.
The Florida Department of Health offers the following guidelines:
• Never use charcoal or gas grills inside a house, garage, vehicle, tent or fireplace.
• Never use a generator indoors, including garages, basements, crawl spaces and other enclosed or partially enclosed areas, even with ventilation. Opening doors and windows, the health department says, will not prevent carbon monoxide from building-up in the home.
• Never use a gas range or oven to heat a home. Pilot lights may be blown-out by a slight breeze.
• Don’t leave small gas-powered tools like lawn blowers, chain saws or mowers running in a garage or near an open window or air conditioning unit.
• Always locate generators outdoors on a dry surface away from doors, windows, vents and air conditioning units which could suck the poison gas into the house.
• Install battery-operated or plug-in type carbon monoxide alarms in a home according to manufacturer’s instructions. The health department warns that carbon monoxide alarms are set to go off at fairly high levels of the gas and lower levels of exposure are dangerous.
• Test carbon monoxide alarms regularly and replace batteries at least once a-year.
Symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning include nausea, dizziness, confusion, shortness of breath, weakness, lack of coordination, impaired vision and loss of consciousness.
Someone suspected of carbon monoxide poisoning should be moved into fresh air immediately. All combustible appliances should be turned off and 911 notified, saying there may be a case of carbon monoxide poisoning so they can respond properly.
And, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the gas doesn’t just dissipate when trapped in an enclosed area. In July 2005, Hurricane Dennis struck the Panhandle. An 84-year-old man, a retired mechanical engineer, had run out of gasoline for his portable generator that was on his porch.
Two days later, according to U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson’s office, the man had opened all of his home’s windows because, without electricity, there was no air conditioning. Then, after the generator had been idle for two days, he took a can of gasoline onto his porch and began refilling the generator.
The man was overcome and died from the two-day-old carbon monoxide cloud on his porch.
The dangers of carbon monoxide go beyond the home.
Pinellas County is one of the nation’s busiest areas for watercraft sports. Many boaters aren’t aware of the special dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning they face.
Next week, a look into how investigators believe that an Idaho family died in its sleep and about a fad that may kill.
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Article published on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2006
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