Q: Why are Carbon Monoxide (CO) Poisonings Greatest in Winter and what can People do to Prevent Becoming a Statistic?
A: It’s because of three things: home heating, storms and warming up the car.
Home heating: Winter is when people are burning fuel to keep their house warm. CO is part of the waste gases from this combustion. From oil furnaces to pellet stoves to kerosene heaters to gas logs, they all need to be vented to the outdoors in order to be safe. All of these can malfunction and cause a backup of gases into the home at any point during the heating season. Unvented appliances like kerosene heaters are particularly risky—by design they emit waste gases into the room you are heating.
Storms: Backup generators are becoming common to stay warm during a power outage from a heavy snow or ice storm. If they are operated indoors or in an attached garage, the CO they generate can enter the home.
Warming the car: Tailpipe exhaust contains lots of CO; letting the car idle in a closed garage is like creating a gas chamber.
To be safe: 1) have a professional tune up your furnace at the beginning of the heating season; 2) install a CO detector in the basement and on the floor where you sleep; 3) avoid kerosene heaters and other unvented heaters; 4) only run a generator outside; 5) never warm up the car in a closed garage.
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Dr. Gary Ginsberg is a public health toxicologist in Connecticut and a lecturer at the Yale School of Public Health. He has written a book geared toward the general public, “What’s Toxic, What's Not,” and also has a website, whatstoxic.com, to answer questions about chemicals found in consumer products and in our homes.
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The Yale School of Public Health invites you to submit questions for Dr. Ginsberg as part of this recurring monthly series. Contact us through Facebook or by e-mailing Michael Greenwood at michael.greenwood@yale.edu