| Carbon Monoxide is a gas given off by cars, grills, gas furnaces, propane stoves and generators. The CDC reports that every year at least 15,000 people in the US go to the emergency room due to over exposure to CO.More than 435 people die of unintentional, non fire-related carbon monoxide poisoning every year, new CDC statistics show. The symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning can be confused with many diseases. Symptoms include headache, feeling dizzy or lightheaded, and nausea.CDC reports show that most accidental carbon monoxide poisonings happen in January, and the second most in December. The fewest are in the summer months of July and August.
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The staff at AEI Corporation has worked on hundreds of carbon monoxide cases across the Country. The common denominators for all carbon monoxide cases are: 1. Gas appliance that is running poorly, i.e. producing a lot of carbon monoxide. 2. Something that prevents the carbon monoxide, a constituent of the flue gas, from leaving the dwelling. 3. A method for distributing the carbon monoxide throughout the living space. 4. A runtime of an appliance that is long enough to produce a large volume of carbon monoxide, i.e. cold weather with heating appliances. The basic events that cause the items above to fall into place are divided into three categories: 1. Lack of maintenance or improper maintenance of an appliance. 2. Improper installation of an appliance. 3. Defective or malfunctioning equipment. A proper field investigation at the site of a carbon monoxide incident can usually determine the cause of the carbon monoxide poisoning. In many instances, particularly with furnaces, the appliance is discarded and a new one is put in before the engineers are called to conduct an investigation. It is important to preserve the evidence. Our new location at 8197 West Brandon Drive in Littleton, CO which is situated on a secured, fenced two acre lot provides about 14,000 square feet of office, laboratory and warehouse space as well as a 15-ton crane and 18’ overhead doors. Lab testing can be a very important part of testing a gas appliance and its components. AEI can test any appliance in our lab. Often a room of the same size as the mechanical room is reconstructed in our lab. We can test natural gas or propane appliances and also wood burning fireplaces. We have special carbon monoxide testing equipment and can build test structures with appliances inside the lab that are unaffected by the weather. Various conditions such as temperature and pressure differentials can be controlled. Summary When you have a carbon monoxide loss, do the following: 1. Preserve the evidence. 2. Get engineers there as soon as possible. 3. Obtain any carbon monoxide readings taken by utilities or private contractors in the structure. 4. Get carboxyhemoglobin levels for the victims. Email us for carbon monoxide or other papers listed on our website at info@AEIengineers.com. |
