Carbon monoxide poisoning is potentially lethal, but also completely preventable. Most accidental cases occur when people are lax about basic preventative techniques. Simply taking a few basic steps will ensure that your home is safe from it.
Get a Detector
Carbon monoxide detectors are cheap, reliable, and accurate. Simply leaving the home when the alarm goes off and calling for help will avoid most cases of poisoning. Installing one is the first step to keeping a home safe, but they do take maintenance. The battery should be checked and replaced if necessary at least twice per year. Most people do so at the start and end of daylight savings time, to make sure they remember.
Maintain Heaters
Most carbon monoxide enters the home through heating systems. They’re perfectly safe when they work properly, but they need regular maintenance to make sure that they don’t release the gas. A yearly examination by a professional for the home’s heater, water heater, and any other system that burns coal, gas, or oil is sufficient.
Keep Engines Off in the Garage
A car’s engine can release just as much carbon monoxide as a broken heater. That’s fine when it can disperse into the atmosphere, but running it in a closed garage allows it to accumulate. Leaving the door open will slow it down, but it won’t stop it from building up entirely, so it’s best to bring cars outside before turning the engine on for any significant length of time.
Ventilation Near Flames
All fireplaces and other open flames should be kept ventilated. That allows the carbon monoxide that they release to harmlessly slip out into the environment instead of accumulating where it can harm humans. Regularly check chimneys and other ventilation shafts to make sure that they haven’t been blocked. Otherwise, they might trap a lot of carbon monoxide before you realize the problem.
Don’t Heat with Gas Ovens
Some people use gas ovens to heat their homes, but that’s a dangerous mistake. They lack the ventilation to properly heat a home without releasing too much carbon monoxide into it at the same time. They’re fine for cooking because the release it slowly and they usually don’t stay on for very long, but extended use for heating will release too much of the gas.
Staying Safe
Carbon monoxide poisoning is dangerous, but it’s also easy to prevent. All it takes is a little bit of effort and being careful around potential problems. People who keep their detector in good shape and avoid the biggest risk factors can be confident that they aren’t at risk for it.
