The odorless, colorless gas from furnaces and heaters can be deadly in high concentrations.
By Nicole Radzievich
Morning Call (Allentown, Pennsylvania)
Copyright 2007 The Morning Call, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Bethlehem Fire Marshal Robert Novatnak still recalls the trepidation he felt a dozen years ago when a disoriented women answered the door and weakly told firefighters that her toddler sons were in their beds.
She wasn’t overcome by smoke or fire. It was a colorless, odorless killer called carbon monoxide. The chimney of the row home on Spring Street had been blocked by a squirrels nest, and the exhaust from the furnaces backed up into the home late one night.
“A woman living next to them had a carbon monoxide detector that had been going off all night and she called us,” Novatnak said. “If it were not for her, her neighbors could have been dead.”
Now, as the technology becomes more affordable, Bethlehem wants to make those detectors mandatory for every building that has pellet stoves, fireplaces, kerosene heaters, oil- and gas-fired furnaces or any other fossil fuel-burning system.
Those fuels produce carbon monoxide when burned. If not properly ventilated, the toxic fumes can build up in a home to dangerous points. Carbon monoxide attaches itself to blood 210 times faster than oxygen, deprives the brain of oxygen and puts them to sleep, Novatnak said. Depending on the age, health and length of exposure, symptoms can include headaches, dizziness, nausea and fatigue.
“If you have carbon monoxide poisoning, you can experience flu-like symptoms, a slight bug that will slowly put you to sleep, possibly for good,” said Lt. Joseph Chernaskey, chief fire inspector.
The statistics on carbon monoxide poisoning vary. But the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 500 people die from unintentional carbon monoxide poisoning, and another 2,000 commit suicide that way. In Bethlehem, firefighters responded to 51 calls about carbon monoxide since January 2005, six of those this year.
The reasons vary. One home on Cherokee Street had a dirty furnace, and residents on Mechanic Street used their gas oven to heat their home.
“As the price of oil continues to increase, people are looking for a secondary source for heat. They are using wood stoves and kerosene heaters, and that stuff needs to be ventilated,” said Michael Palos, chief housing inspector. “You can’t see it or smell it if it leaks. That is why carbon monoxide detectors are critical, especially during the winter season.”
Palos is pushing City Council to enact the new requirement as soon as possible. At council’s Community Development Committee meeting this week, the panel unanimously recommended the changes and council could enact it as early as March.
States such as New Jersey, Illinois and New York have passed laws to require them; Pennsylvania has not. Most municipalities in Pennsylvania rely on a statewide building code for inspections. That code does not include carbon monoxide detectors and it is up to the communities to regulate them, Palos said.
If council approves the ordinance, Bethlehem will be the first city in the the Lehigh Valley to require carbon monoxide detectors.
Enforcement of the ordinance would be phased in. City officials would make sure the detectors were hooked up during inspections of new buildings and when property is sold. Violations could yield a $200 to $1,000 fine or 90 days in jail, Palos said.
Tony Hanna, city director of community and economic development, said the affordable prices of detectors -- about $30 -- make now the right time for the city to pursue the ordinance.
And sales are going up. Robert Heffelfinger, manager at Cantelmi’s Hardware of Bethlehem, said the store has already surpassed last year’s record of detector sales. In 2006, they sold 100. In the first 38 days of the year, the store has sold 133.
“I think a lot of people are buying things like kerosene heaters to save money or fuel, and all the directions now tell you to get a carbon monoxide detector,” he said.
Howard Kutzler can’t reiterate enough the importance of one.
When he lived in Bethlehem, Kutzler first installed a detector about eight years ago. One night around the holidays, Kutzler returned to his home and an alarm was going off. Unable to smell or sense anything amiss, he discovered the alarm indicated that the CO levels were high. City firefighters were called out, and Kutzler soon discovered that a part of his heating system malfunctioned in the 30-year-old home. He had to stay with relatives for two days until it aired out.
“You can’t see it or smell it or taste it. I could not tell that we had a high level of carbon monoxide in the home,” Kutzler said. “If I didn’t have the detector, who knows what would have happened.”
SAFETY TIPS
Ways to reduce carbon monoxide exposure:
Do not allow vehicles to idle inside garages.
Properly adjust gas appliances.
Replace unvented space heaters with vented space heaters.
Use the right kind of fuel in kerosene space heaters.
Install exhaust fans to vent fumes from gas stoves to the outside.
Purchase properly sized wood stoves that meet U.S. Environmental Protection Agency emission standards and make sure the doors on the stoves fit tightly.
Hire trained professionals to inspect, clean and tune up furnaces, flues and chimneys each year.
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
DANGER LEVELS
Carbon monoxide can cause serious health effects (measured in parts per million)
100: no symptoms
200: mild headache
800: headache after a 45-minute exposure, nausea and unconsciousness after two hours
1,000: lose consciousness after one-hour exposure
3,200: lose consciousness after 30 minutes
6,400: lose consciousness after 10-15 minutes
12,800: immediately lose consciousness, death in one to three minutes
Source: “Essentials of Fire Fighting” published by the Fire Protection Publications of Oklahoma State University, 1992.