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Protecting Employees from Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
After 25 years of preaching and teaching safety, I have come to realize that safety is a culture, not just a workday activity. It is a part of our lives. Accordingly, successful safety programs need to address not just workplace but home injuries. As the weather turns cold, there is one important home safety topic that I take up with our employees: Carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning. Here is what I tell them.
High Cost of Fuel Increases CO Risks
Mid-fall is the start of the CO season. This is when we start firing up furnaces, wood burners, space heaters and the like. And when we button up our homes, shops and garages to keep out drafts, we also seal in CO.
This year, the CO threat is especially acute. News reports are warning that home heating costs - such as natural gas in the Midwest - may increase by as much as 62% this winter. Consequently, many people are expected to use alternative heating sources to cut down on their bills. That makes it especially imperative to get the word out about the dangers of CO poisoning.
Warning Symptoms
CO is known as "the silent killer." That's because it kills without warning. CO gas is odorless and colorless. CO displaces the oxygen from your blood stream (thus the red face) and exposure to high levels can be fatal.
Symptoms of CO poisoning can easily be mistaken or explained away as lack of sleep or mild flu. So the first thing you need to do is warn your employees and make them aware of the symptoms of CO poisoning, including:
- Headaches
- Weakness
- Dizziness
- Disorientation
- Unusually red cheeks
If anyone in your household is experiencing these symptoms, move them to a well-ventilated area and get medical attention.
Inspect for Sources of CO
To reduce the risk of CO poisoning in your home or shop, you should conduct a pre-winter inspection of common CO sources, such as:
- Furnaces
- Fireplaces
- Space heaters (other than electric ones)
- Gas-fired appliances, including stoves or grills
- Hot water heaters
As part of your inspection:
- Have a qualified technician inspect and clean your heating system (even a new furnace may have a cracked heat exchanger);
- Ensure that chimneys and flues are clear of animal or bird nests;
- Ensure that summer junk isn't blocking vents, flues or the immediate area around space heaters.
Generally, any internal combustion engine or anything burning a fossil fuel should be inspected.
Other Pointers
In addition to inspecting CO sources, there are other ways you can reduce the risk of CO poisoning in your home:
- Even in emergencies, do not use your kitchen stove as a heater;
- Don't grill with propane or charcoal indoors;
- Avoid running any internal combustion engine inside a garage or shed. If you do a lot of vehicle work, try this trick used by most commercial garages: place a small covered hole in your garage door and run a hose from the exhaust pipes through the hole.
Conclusion
Invest in your family's safety by buying a carbon monoxide detector for the home, garage and the workshop - one that is warranted and has UL approval. Or buy a smoke detector that has a CO detector built-in. Some insurance companies will you give a credit for having a CO detector. At a cost of somewhere between $20 and $70 (US), it's money well spent. The life saved may literally be your own!
BY THE NUMBERS
Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Statistics
15,200 Estimated annual number of persons treated with confirmed or possible non-fire-related CO exposure
480 Number of persons who die from non-fire-related CO poisoning each year on average
69 Average number of CO poisoning fatalities in January (compared to 21 in June)
2,511 Average number of nonfatal CO poisonings in January (compared to 510 in June)
64% Percentage of nonfatal CO exposures that occur in the home
2.7 The average number of men that die of CO poisoning for each female CO fatality
18.5% CO exposure incidents associated with faulty furnaces
9% CO exposure incidents associated with motor vehicles
9.3% Percentage of patients that had a CO detector at home
100% Percentage who reported that they were alerted by the CO detector
Source: The Journal of the American Medical Association (2005; 293:1183-1186)
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I just recently read a newspaper article on several employees getting poisoned by Carbon Monoxide. The interesting thing about this particular situation was that the place of business did not even have equipment that emit this particular toxic gas. The carbon monoxide was brought into the building from an idling vehicle parked directly in front of the place of business. As a business owner, this made me a little nervous, since I do not currently have any precautions in place for carbon monoxide monitoring.
I began to do a little research on what OSHA may require in the workplace to monitor for carbon monoxide. I couldn't find anything, other than OSHA has a PEL (Permissable Exposure Limit) for CO in the workplace. They allow up to 50 ppm of CO exposure over an 8-hour work period. NIOSH has an REL (Recommended Exposure Limit) of 35 ppm over an 8-hour work period.
I have no way of currently monitoring the CO levels in my warehouse, so I began the hunt for equipment that would allow me to do so. I originally thought that I could just install a regular residential CO detector in my offices and warehouse, but I was told by almost every manufacturer I called that I would be voiding the warranty on the CO alarms because they were not meant to be installed in a commercial or industrial environment. I came across a few very expensive commercial CO monitors that would allow me to view the current carbon monoxide levels within my work environment, but the equipment seemed more suited to a large industrial facility and not so much my small warehouse and office space. Plus, the equipment ran into the thousands and also required semi-annual maintenance which also cost money. Not very suitable for my small-business budget.
I continued my search for a low-to-mid priced piece of commercial equipment that would allow me to meet both the NIOSH and OSHA requirements. That is when I ran across the Protech 8505 commercial CO monitor. This little guy only cost me around $100 and allowed me to monitor for carbon monoxide down to 10 ppm. It keeps an 8-hour TWA (time weighted average) which allows the owner to see what the average CO was over the last 8 hours - thus, allowing you to comply with both OSHA and NIOSH. It goes into alarm at 30 ppm in less than 7 hours and when the CO levels get higher the alarm time gets lower. For instance at 195 ppm the CO monitor will go into alarm in less than 15 seconds. This also allows for my company to meet the NIOSH requirement of no more than 200 ppm exposure at any given time.
The only thing is that this unit can only monitor up to 1000 sq. ft. of unobstructed space, so I had to purchase 3 for my warehouse and 2 for my offices. You have to check the units each day and keep a physical log of what the 8-hour TWA is so that if you are inspected by OSHA you can prove your compliance. The units have a two year life span, which means that I will have to replace these either annually or every other year to make sure that they are accurate at low levels. But it doesn't bother me so much because if I went with the multi-thousand dollar units I'm still paying less per year completely replacing the protech 8505 vs. just the maintenance costs on the more expensive units. Anyhow, I thought that I would help eliminate the need for other business owners or safety managers to do the same research I did, jut to come up to the same conclusion. I purchased this unit at an online safety store called the Seaco Company, but it is available elsewhere. They shipped my CO monitors the same day I ordered them and also were able to answer installation questions and the such. Good Luck to the rest of you.