CBS Highlights Importance of CO Alarms in Schools

Attorney Johnson Calls for CO Alarms in Schools

Attorney Gordon Johnson was interviewed about the importance of CO Alarms in Schools and workplaces by CBS News. He stated the consistent theme he has oft repeated on this blog: Alarms need to be where the people are. Attorney Johnson stated in the interview:

Too much of our prevention is focused on only the places that people might die, which is typically where people sleep. It is just as important in places that people work, they go to school.

Attorney Gordon Johnson is interviewed by CBS News about the need for CO Alarms in Schools and in places where people work and congregate. See https://www.cbsnews.com/news/carbon-monoxide-detectors-save-lives-why-arent-they-required-everywhere/

This blog has been focusing on these very issues for several weeks. See Call for CO Alarms in Schools.  If alarms are only required where people sleep, then poisonings that happen during the day, in places where people congregate in numbers, will be missed. Alarms must be in all work places, schools, churches and day cares.

Alarms need to be even in places where people work by themselves, such as in utility rooms. If a high poisoning event occurs in a place where a person is by themself, they may succumb to the leak before they have a chance to escape. See  our Blog about the Ann Arbor Michigan Victory Inn Poisoning. 

• The Brain Injury Law Group has represented people who were poisoned in schools;
• The Brain Injury Law Group has represented people who were poisoned in schools;
• The Brain Injury Law Group has represented people who were poisoned in office buildings;
• The Brain Injury Law Group has represented people who were poisoned at weddings;
• At work in hotels, at work in office buildings, while awake in apartment buildings, while they were working out in gyms.

Too much of the emphasis on where alarms are put is an attempt to change only one statistic: how many people die from Carbon monoxide poisoning. It is perhaps even more important to reduce the 20 times greater probability that someone will have permanent brain damage from carbon monoxide poisoning. You can get permanent brain damage from carbon monoxide poisoning in any indoor space, and it can happen fast enough that it could be too late by the time the poisoned people figure out they are being poisoned and don’t have the flu.

If you survive, the greatest long term risk factor is for brain damage. Carbon monoxide related brain damage can create cognitive, behavioral, frontal lobe problems, emotional and neurological deficits. Those deficits are not only likely to be permanent, they can be progressive, like with football or other sport head injuries. Prevention is the only cure for progressive brain damage.

Prevention Key to Avoiding Brain Damage.

Prevention has two elements, safer buildings and alarms everywhere. In commercial and schools, prevention must start with HVAC professionals doing annual preventative maintenance. Hence the term: preventative maintenance. Delegating this task to maintenance workers or so called “property engineers” or “hotel engineers” is not adequate as they almost universally lack the training to do this maintenance. Maintaining  a fuel burning appliance requires more than changing the filters.

• Burners and all other parts need to be cleaned and checked.
• Any sign of corrosion must be investigated.
• Combustion analysis of the flue gases must be done, which requires special tools and training.
• Finally, all appliances must be replaced at the end of their manufacturer recommended useful life. Waiting for an appliance to break is too late. Carbon monoxide leaks typically happen before the appliance stops functioning.

It is December. Call your HVAC maintenance company and have them check your furnaces and other appliances. Please don’t let carbon monoxide poisoning ruin your holiday.