Play it safe

Friday, November 11, 2011

Five people on Ball Hill Road in Milford were lucky last week. They were victims of carbon monoxide poisoning but caught the symptoms in time to get the police and fire departments and ambulance service out to help them quickly.

All survived, but one came close to losing his life.

It isn’t that these folks did anything wrong. They had a generator going outside the house, but fumes leaked in, and there was a serious problem, although not as serious, thankfully, as it could have been.

What might have helped?

A carbon monoxide detector.

This can be a valuable tool, because carbon monoxide is sneaky: It is odorless. So, without a detector, you get no warning until you start feeling the symptoms: sleepiness, a headache, nausea. Carbon monoxide also can have severe effects on the fetus of a pregnant woman, and chronic exposure to low levels of CO can lead to depression, confusion and memory loss.

But a carbon monoxide detector is set up to be an early warning system. Don’t worry if you’re asleep; it will wake you up.

And don’t worry if you have no power; it should have a backup battery system.

Most of us know we should have smoke alarms. Most of us have them. Those of us that don’t sometimes live to regret it.

But carbon monoxide detectors just don’t get the same publicity.

Take a warning from what happened in Milford in last week’s snowstorm and go right now to get a CO detector.

It could save your life.