Mom to Mom – Carbon Monoxide Detectors

Today on Mom to Mom, we’re going to talk about the importance of carbon monoxide detectors. I know with the colder months; you’re probably going to have your heater running. So, I have a very important person here with me, Todd, who is a local firefighter. Todd, tell us about the importance of these CO detectors.

“So, CO or carbon monoxide is the byproduct of incomplete combustion. So, anything that burns puts off co. But most of the runs that we’re making are on water heaters, furnaces, things like that, that maybe there’s something wrong with the pot light, maybe something went wrong with it. So, you don’t smell it, you don’t taste it, you don’t see it. So, it’s important to have an alarm that will detect that for you, especially when you’re asleep at night.”

Now, I know a lot of times they call it the silent killer because most of the time you’ll just go to sleep. What are some symptoms of being exposed to the poison?

“On top of this time of year when you’re turning your furnaces on, you’re burning your fireplaces and gas logs and stuff for the first time. A lot of the symptoms actually mimic flu-like symptoms as well. So, nausea, headaches, dizziness, tiredness, all that kind of stuff. So, a lot of people think, well, they just have a headache. I’m going to go to bed. I don’t feel good. So, if you have those and you don’t have an alarm to alert you that something may be wrong, that could be a bad deal. So, we prefer everybody to have at least one alarm in their house, even if they have an attached garage that they exhaust from, the car can kind of buildup in there as well.

Yeah, so I know a lot of older homes don’t have these alarms in their houses, so you might want to double check if you have an older home, but a lot of newer ones do. But it is important. I like to express this, that the sound of the alarm because it can be kind of confusing. So, Todd, I thank you so much for coming on and talking to us about carbon monoxide detectors. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us on our Facebook page and we’ll see you on the next Mom to Mom.

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• Mandy Williamson