Carbon Monoxide

Speech by Stephanie Trotter, OBE.

2011-11-15T08:02:00.000-08:00

Speech by Stephanie Trotter OBE, President & Director of charity CO-Gas Safety on the 13th July 2010 at the re-launch of the All Party Parliamentary Gas Safety Group in the Attlee Room at the House of Lords.

Speech at APPGSG 13-07-10 Final

Carbon Monoxide Kills Newsletter Launched!

2011-10-31T06:03:00.000-07:00

Introduction by Dr. David G. Penney

We are all aware that carbon monoxide is a deadly poison at high concentrations and its lethality is the result of impaired oxygen delivery to cells as it binds to hemoglobin in the blood. Recent research suggests that CO has health effects in humans at low and even ultra-low concentrations, and that these effects are mediated through previously unknown mechanisms not involving hypoxia. It may well be that what we knew before 2000, is at best, only a fraction of the story regarding CO toxicology.

A comprehensive report “Selected Pollutants: WHO Guidelines for Indoor Air Quality” became available to the public, December 15, 2010. This report, book length, can be purchased from WHO, Bonn, and elsewhere. The chapter on CO was deveIoped by a committee of six scientists, three Americans, two Italians and one French woman. I wrote the initial draft of a substantial portion of that chapter.

This report is revolutionary in several respects: 1) The new 24-hour guideline for CO exposure is 7.0 mg/m3, or about 6.5 ppm. Prior to this, no change in safety guidelines had been made by national or international agencies in more than 25-years. This decision was based on new epidemiologic studies of data from thousands, 10s or even 100s of thousands of people. These studies imply that CO is even more toxic to humans than previously believed in the past based on limited numbers of studies using relatively small sample sizes. The new epidemiologic studies support long held beliefs that chronic CO exposure at low or even ultra-low levels can produce severe and lasting health effects. 2) That there may be NO safe lower limit (no NOAEL) for CO exposure – as has been known for ionizing radiation for decades. 3) That carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) is a poor metric for the severity of CO poisoning, especially for chronic CO poisoning.

During mid-2010, I gave testimony in a Massachusetts (USA) court in a case where defense challenged me to show evidence of neurological effects at CO concentrations of 9 ppm (long-standing EPA & WHO outside air guidelines) or less. Based on the new study data referenced above, the judge ruled against defense and for my opinions. This, combined with our new understanding of how CO damages the body independent of COHb and hypoxia, and at far lower low CO exposure levels than hypoxia can do (i.e. oxidative & immunologic mechanisms), opens a new window to our understanding of the extremely toxic nature of CO and its deleterious effects on human health.

David G. Penney, Ph.D., Professor of Physiology (retired)

Why it is vital to get a specialist Carbon Monoxide lawyer

2011-10-31T04:26:00.000-07:00

The law around carbon monoxide is a very specialist area and requires help from specialist people, a local law firm may not know the complexities surrounding the subject and if you claim is not handled correctly from the start it could jeopardize any claim you may have.

Don’t worry that we may be some distance from you as we will always retain a local law firm who you can speak with who will handle any paperwork you may have. Our lawyers work on a contingency fee so you will have no legal bills to pay we only get paid on results so we will work hard on your behalf. We know what to look for and the best medical experts to refer you to carbon monoxide is what we do, if you had a specialist medical need you would want to seek specialist help, you would not let you family doctor treat you for a brain injury to would seek the help of a specialist neurologist, in actual fact they are specialism’s within neurology itself so you would want the best.

Well like the specialist neurologist we too are specialists so you are in the right place. If you fill out the form on our main website with as much detail as you can we will get back to you, we prefer written detail as it allows a number of people to process your enquiry but please include your phone contact as we can call you back and talk through the detail.

David Penney comes to the UK

2011-10-31T04:13:00.000-07:00

In November David Penney will be in the UK to pass on his knowledge to organizations within Britain. David, our resident Dr, will firstly be at the house of Lords for the start of the CO Awareness week which is in its fourth year in the UK for which Lynn Griffiths is to be applauded.

CO Awareness Week is certainly a great event and in the years that we have attended it certainly does what it says on the tin and has the people in the seats of power in the UK focused on the issue of saving lives. After this Event joined by our founder Rob Aiers David will be continuing a mini Lecture tour, they will be taking in University College London with Dr Ben Croxford. Ben has in the past done some great work on testing houses in the UK for carbon monoxide with some startling results. Rob and David then go on to the Environment Protection agency and Breakspeare Hospital, it will certainly be an interesting and International week for the carbonmonoxidekills.com team.

The Thorny Issue of Data

2011-10-31T04:09:00.000-07:00

Through our recently launched newsletter, we hope to be able to gather much better data regarding the collation of data from where ever it resides.

Our preliminary studies have shown vast differences in the figures of reported deaths and injuries. For instance The USA reports around 500 deaths a year and France from what data is available, reports around 300. If these figures are right why is there such a disparity in the figures. France is a fifth the size of the USA so why are its figures so high? Is it just that the reported figures are as a result of better testing of bodies and patients? We mentioned the UK why then are the official figures for the UK last year 4, yes that’s right 4, from what we can gather the Charity CO Gas safety has by far the best data for the UK as it goes back the furthest around 15 years.

The three countries broadly use fossil fuel burning appliances in a very similar way so why are these figures so different? We hope that this news letter will be able to drill down through then statistics to find what the true figures are. It is a very difficult task as taking the USA alone the different States have different reporting procedures, this very much came to light earlier this year when we worked with the Illinois house of representatives regarding new legislation for CO detectors. We believe that if all bodies were checked for a range of poisons including Carbon monoxide then the true figure would become known. The true figure could be scary indeed.

Five Clarksville Residents Die

2011-10-20T04:34:00.000-07:00

By Luke Thompson

At least 12 children lost a parent Sunday when five adults died in a recreational vehicle at Clarksville Speedway as a result of what appears to be carbon monoxide poisoning.

A news release Monday morning identified the dead as Timothy Bryan Stone, 39; James Franklin Wall II, 38; Allison Elizabeth Bagwell-Wyatt, 32; and Jonathan Michael Over and his wife, Kathryn Elizabeth Over, both 27. All five were from Clarksville, and the three men were members of Bikers Who Care, a local charity organization that on Saturday hosted the 30th annual Leslie W. Watson Memorial Toy Run.

The group’s primary focus is helping needy kids. That mission will take on new meaning now.

BWC Director Bill Langford and member Steve Eckart said the five people who were killed leave behind 12 or 13 children, for whom a memorial fund has been established at Planters Bank.

“They were all hard-working family men who also spent a lot of time with Bikers Who Care and supported our causes,” said Eckart, who was one of the first to go into the RV on Sunday.

BWC member Ron Keele of Cunningham said many of the trailers for the event are rented from Fort Campbell, and as many as two-thirds of their members are Army veterans.

Rob Aiers, the director of CarbonMonoxideKills.com, said exposure to levels of 40 ppm can be dangerous over a period of several weeks, though the impact varies depending on the person. He called the reading of 438 ppm “very, very high.”

“They won’t have known much about it,” he said. “Those sorts of levels, if they were asleep, you wouldn’t anticipate anybody would wake up.”

Aiers said around 500 carbon monoxide deaths are reported in the United States every year, and the best form of prevention is to have a standard UL2034 detector. He added that generators should be placed as remotely as possible and not near windows.

High levels of carbon monoxide cause a loss of oxygen to the blood. Symptoms of the odorless, invisible poison include headache, dizziness, weakness, nausea, vomiting, sleepiness and confusion, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Original article: http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110920/NEWS/309200048/5-Clarksville-residents-die

Acute or Chronic Carbon Monoxide Poisoning?

2011-10-20T04:31:00.000-07:00

Acute Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Where there is a quick high concentration of carbon monoxide that may be caused by a catastrophic failure of some kind where often the emergency services are involved. These events are usually considered news worthy and those are the ones that you hear about. They are serious in their own right and can cause death or prolonged heath issues.

Or

Chronic Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

This is usually caused by manufacturing defects or bad maintenance, this is where you suffer prolonged exposure to lower levels of carbon monoxide over an extended period of time. This is far more common than the acute exposure but far less well reported. This will result in your becoming unwell over time with symptoms like flue or stomach upsets or headaches, sometimes that will not go away. There are also many other symptoms that you could be suffering from like fatigue sensitivity to light, loud noise or chemicals like cleaning fluids. Often these symptoms will not go away but need to be recognized by the medical profession who will often mis-diagnose the symptoms caused by a CO event as something else.

Proud to be linked with Firesmoke.org

2011-10-20T04:26:00.000-07:00

We are proud to be associated with Firesmoke.org, this organization seeks to protect firefighters against the toxic twins of Carbon monoxide and Hydrogen cyanide. These chemicals combined create conditions that can cause the body to alarmingly shut down post what may have been considered a near miss.

Over the last 10 years this condition has very much worsened because of the higher use of plastics in buildings creating and ideal environment for the creation of Hydrogen Cyanide. Rob Schnepp and Jason Krusen will be meeting on Friday 21st October to exchange ideas as to how to get the message out both to fire fighters and to the general public on both the subject of carbon monoxide and fire smoke.

Carbon Monoxide Injuries

2011-10-20T04:14:00.000-07:00

Carbon monoxide injuries are often not recognized for the long term effects that can persist. Neurological symptoms are present because of the way that carbon monoxide affects the general operation of the body. Imagine that oxygen is vital for your body to function. Then think that carbon monoxide inhibits your body from utilizing the oxygen that should be coursing round every cell in your body keeping it alive. Carbon monoxide binds to the hemoglobin much easier than oxygen in other words it takes the place of the oxygen starving your body quite literally of its life’s blood. These symptoms can display themselves 2 days to much longer, around 6 weeks after an event. If a proper diagnosis is not sought soon enough you may be injured for life. The toxic effects can continue during this time, which can display itself in various neurological or behavioral effects can manifest themselves. The symptoms can include memory loss, irritability, confusion, a general change in mood, a loss of balance (vertigo type feeling) and disorientation. These symptoms can also be much worse than this and include seizures, psychosis bowel conditions, incontinence and hallucinations.

Given that most Dr’s are not aware that these symptoms exist much less how to treat them this may leave you with permanent medical problems that may make every day living very difficult. You may have a claim against the persons or organization who was responsible. Don’t be afraid of thinking about claiming we are here to help. We know that sitting in front of a lawyer can be very daunting, especially if you have some of the symptoms that are listed above. That is where we will help.

We only deal with Lawyers who understand your issues and can completely identify with your issues. Many law firms will try but they don’t understand you issues and will not get you the award that you deserve. We will also be by your side throughout your claim in the event that you don not understand what is happening to you or that you don’t understand the legal process.

We have been working in the field of carbon monoxide for over 12 years and we have come across most eventualities. It’s really simple, Just either email me or call our toll free number. I will call you back we will talk for as long as you need to and discuss your problems and how best to move forward. You can then think about the process and take it at your own pace.