Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

[Dorothy Wood]

sux

it's no fun and makes your head hurt, be careful this winter season! buy a detector and sleep safe.


my boyfriend and I slept at his place friday night and woke up feeling super shitty with pounding headaches, nausea, and dizziness. I was like, "I feel poisoned", and he was like, "it's probably just the dry air." and we kind of fought about it because I said it smelled like gas and there was probably a leak. and he was like, "no, I don't think so." and I kept being like, "we're poisoned!" and we left the apartment with some windows open, but still felt pretty shit for about 4-5 more hours. we stayed at my house last night and feel okay today. I looked up our symptoms and figured we must've been poisoned by CO. so I called him and told him before he got home. and then I guess he got home and walked in and immediately felt dizzy. he left and called me, and I told him to go to the fire department (because the internet says to). and the firemen went in and tested and BINGO, CO! ha! so, I won our first fight. fuck yeah!

but we also got poisoned, so that sucks. too bad they don't have oxygen bars anymore.

[b i o n i c]

if its been going for days its super dangerous right now, like houses have blown up.. be careful!!

edit: oh, well.. you two are lucky you didnt sleep longer and die

[Dorothy Wood]

yeah, it wasn't the gas I smelled, because carbon monoxide is odorless. but the gas might've just been smellier too because it wasn't getting ventilated correctly.


scary shit!

[RobMoney$]

Due to my line of work, I was accidently blasted in the face by several cylinders of high purity CO a few years ago.

I passed out and I was told I started turning blue.
I was taken to the local hospital, and then transferred to the hospital at the Univ. of Penn where they put me in a large hyperbaric chamber. They gradually decompressed the atmosphere of the chamber over several hours. They described it as submerging me to 40ft. below sea level and gradually bringing me closer to the surface. They do this same proceedure for divers who get "the bends" from rising to the surace too quickly.

What CO does is coagulates your blood, which will kill you if pumped through your heart, so it's extremely serious.

You're probably OK now, but yeah, consider yourselves very lucky.

As for the "colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas" description, I still contend that with my co-workers and superiors. I tasted it for days. It tasted almost metallic.

[Dorothy Wood]

Yeah, I could definitely perceive something in the air. My boyfriend really couldn't, or was trying to explain it any other way he could. Which, I guess might have been a symptom of being gassed too, since apparently it causes people to get easily. He was definitely less argumentative with me once we left the apartment.

The firemen said the levels weren't high enough to kill us, but if we would've stuck around all day or slept there another night, we would've gotten extremely sick.

:(

thank goodness for the internet, and for firemen! (y)

[Adam]

I have a detector but it fell off the wall last month and the green light that always flashes no longer does. I changed the battery but that didn't do anything, now I'm paranoid the reason it fell off the wall is its way of sounding the alarm because I've never heard the beep one presumes it makes when I'm being slowly killed.

Adds to shopping list.

[Bob]

they add something to gas to make it smell, so that you can detect it with your nose, don't they? i know they add smells to some kind of gas, but i don't know if it's the kind of gas that causes CO poisoning

i learned this from "friends"

[gbsuey]

i got paranoid yesterday, started to feel shitty, realised i hadn't yet replaced last year's detectors, and set straight off for b&q to buy some. all clear though, no idea why i felt wierd then. glad you guys ok, it's a proper fooker that CO.

i also bought a christmas tree, under duress from my children, but not from b&q coz they're theiving rip-off bastardos.

[ms.peachy]

Wow, scary. Glad you guys are OK!

[HAL 9000]

Yeah, I could definitely perceive something in the air. My boyfriend really couldn't, or was trying to explain it any other way he could. Which, I guess might have been a symptom of being gassed too, since apparently it causes people to get easily. He was definitely less argumentative with me once we left the apartment.

The firemen said the levels weren't high enough to kill us, but if we would've stuck around all day or slept there another night, we would've gotten extremely sick.

:(

thank goodness for the internet, and for firemen! (y)

From what I remember on CO - it is produced as the second stage of a ventilation problem. So when a carbon based fuel is burned (including natural gas which has an odour added to it) in oxygen, the typical by-product is Carbon Dioxide. If a room is not ventilated, the oxygen is replaced by Carbon Dioxide. When the Oxygen levels drop below a certain level, there is not enough to bond with the carbon so you start to get CO instead of CO2.

Carbon Dioxide poisoning can also kill you, but more through sufficiation rather than by bonding with your haemoglobin so it is not so bad.

Anyway, the point I was getting at, is that I can imagine it possible that ventilation is sooo bad, that not only is CO formed, but some of the natural gas (say in a boiler) is not burned at all, and then you would smell gas. But that is conjecture!

Did they figure out what was causing it?

[Echewta]

Has anyone named their album "CO2?" Seems like they would have.

[nodanaonlyzuul]

eek! Glad you guys are okay. That's never been something I've thought about. I should check to see if we even have a detector for it.

[RobMoney$]

they add something to gas to make it smell, so that you can detect it with your nose, don't they? i know they add smells to some kind of gas, but i don't know if it's the kind of gas that causes CO poisoning

i learned this from "friends"


Methanethiol, or Methyl Mercaptan is added to natural gas and Ethanethiol is added to propane to give it a strong odor for safety reasons.

[RobMoney$]

From what I remember on CO - it is produced as the second stage of a ventilation problem. So when a carbon based fuel is burned (including natural gas which has an odour added to it) in oxygen, the typical by-product is Carbon Dioxide. If a room is not ventilated, the oxygen is replaced by Carbon Dioxide. When the Oxygen levels drop below a certain level, there is not enough to bond with the carbon so you start to get CO instead of CO2.

Carbon Dioxide poisoning can also kill you, but more through sufficiation rather than by bonding with your haemoglobin so it is not so bad.

Anyway, the point I was getting at, is that I can imagine it possible that ventilation is sooo bad, that not only is CO formed, but some of the natural gas (say in a boiler) is not burned at all, and then you would smell gas. But that is conjecture!

Did they figure out what was causing it?

Hal9000 knows what he's talking about here.

My guess would be the exhaust from the furnace is not being ventilated properly for whatever reason.
Something's probably blocking the chimney vent, or the exhaust pipe leading to the chimney has a leak in it. The chimney probably needs to be cleaned out. A dead bird, or just too much soot buildup that's blocking the exhaust from venting out.

And you're right on about CO2 being an asphyxiant. Anything that displaces the oxygen in the atmosphere is considered an asphyxiant, and can kill you if exposed to it for long enough.

CO is toxic. So not only is it an asphyxiant, but it also causes direct damage to the body, such as the nervous system and the respiratory system.

[Dorothy Wood]

yeah, his apartment has a medium-sized gas furnace in the middle of it that heats the whole place. It's pretty old-fashioned, but it's an old building that used to be factory.

anyway, yep, it wasn't properly ventilated. the landlord is replacing the whole furnace to be on the safe side. (y)

they're working on that today I guess. in the meantime, the boyfriend has been staying with me and we've been very crabby and had a big fight/talk last night. I think things are going to turn out okay, but let me just say, FUCK CARBON MONOXIDE