Two different dangers
Carbon monoxide is a product of incomplete burning, and it has no color, taste or smell. It comes from furnaces, water heaters, gas stoves, fireplaces, generators, grills and idling cars, and it poisons by displacing oxygen in the blood. Natural gas is the fuel itself. It is odorless too, so utilities add a chemical that smells of rotten eggs, and the danger it poses is fire and explosion. A carbon monoxide alarm does not detect a gas leak, and your nose does not detect carbon monoxide.
Recognizing carbon monoxide
The early symptoms are headache, dizziness, weakness, nausea, chest pain and confusion, often mistaken for the flu. The clues are the absence of fever, a whole household falling ill at once, pets included, and symptoms that ease when people leave the building. High levels cause collapse, and people who are asleep can die without waking.
When the alarm sounds
- Get every person and pet outside into fresh air immediately.
- Call 911 from outside, and report anyone with symptoms.
- Stay out until firefighters say the building is safe, even if the alarm stops, and have the appliances inspected before using them again.
Test alarms monthly, and replace the whole unit on the schedule printed on it, usually every five to ten years, because the sensor wears out. Have the furnace and chimney checked once a year. Never heat a home with a gas oven, never run a car in an attached garage even with the door open, and never use a grill or camp stove indoors. A generator belongs at least twenty feet from the house with the exhaust pointing away.
If you smell gas
The signs of a leak are the rotten-egg smell, a hissing near a gas line, and dead plants or bubbling water above a buried pipe.
- Leave at once, taking everyone with you, and leave the door open behind you.
- Do not operate anything that could spark, including light switches, appliances, garage door openers and phones.
- Do not light a match, and do not start a car parked near the building.
- Call 911 and the gas utility's emergency line from a safe distance.
- Wait for the utility to declare the building safe, and do not search for the leak yourself.
Alarm requirements for landlords vary by state, so renters should check, and buy a plug-in alarm if none is supplied.
Tip Call 811 a few days before you dig anywhere in a yard. The free service marks buried gas and power lines before your shovel finds them.
