Carbon Monoxide (CO) Fumes

Talk to a guy this morning who was in the second story bedroom of
a house cleaning some carpet. The truck was running outside the
Garage for a couple hours. The fumes from the truck went into the
Garage, through the door and up the stairs. The helper in the
other side of the house heard this guy hit the floor when he passed
out and got curious about what the sound was. When the helper
saw the guy passed out on the floor, he realized what was going
on and drug the guy outside and saved his life. Wow.

Carbon monoxide is some powerful poison.

Brings to mind a case several years ago where the fresh air intake on one of the local campus buildings was located too close to the service area loading dock. Several people got very sick as a result. Fortunately, no deaths! Design clearances (codes) were followed but unique wind conditions were said to have created the hazardous condition. Design adjustments were made!

It’s interesting to note that CO cumulatively builds up into the bloodstream and adversely affects the ability of red blood cells to transport oxygen to the brain.

Your friend can get a really high dose at work…then come home and sleep in his bedroom heated by a “ventless” gas heater and die from the relatively low CO output, due to what his body had already absorbed at work.

This is why the small amounts of CO output (and their potential) are relevant.

I have seen old people that live in houses with gas space heaters
putting out yellow flames and as soon as you walk in the house
you get a head ache. I can see how the build up of CO could be killing
them one day at a time.