Carbon Monoxide
What is Carbon Monoxide?
Carbon Monoxide (CO) is a highly poisonous gas, it has:
- No smell
- No colour
- No taste
It can be released by appliances as part of the combustion of all carbon fuels (oil/gas/solid fuel/wood) if they are not properly installed or maintained. Anything that burns with a flame can potentially emit carbon monoxide.
More information is available on www.carbonmonoxide.ie or http://watchout.hseni.gov.uk
What are the symptoms of CO poisoning?
Symptoms can be similar to everyday illnesses
- Headaches
- Breathlessness
- Collapse
- Nausea
- Dizziness
- Loss of consciousness
Even low levels of exposure of CO over a long period of time can cause lasting damage to your health, including permanent brain damage. More serious cases can cause death.
How to protect yourself:
All boilers and fuel burning appliances should be serviced annually using a qualified engineer registered with the appropriate organisation (Gas Safe / RGII).
Get CO alarm(s) with the following standards:
Compliance with EN 50291- BS Kitemark (as shown on the right)
- “End of life Indicator”
“End of life Indicator” – This is an option only some alarms offer and is separate to a fault or battery indicator. The “end of life indicator” shows when the unit has come to the end of its life and should be replaced. The documentation with the unit will say approximately how long this will be.
You must test the alarm regularly and replace it when it reaches the end of its life.
We recommend alarms with the “end of life indicator”. Two models that comply with the above are the EI Electronics (EI 204EN) and Honeywell (SF450EN).
