Middletown, NY – A month after the carbon monoxide poisoning that caused the deaths of three people and hospitalization for nine others, Orange County and City of Newburgh officials are still grappling with how to prevent similar tragedies.
It seems apt, during National Public Health Week, to mention this particular public health concern.
Ultimately, a clogged furnace chimney caused the deaths of Jewelle Cummings, Robert Richardson and James Patterson and sickened the others at 55 and 53 Lander St. Fire officials measured the carbon monoxide levels in the basement apartment that Cummings and Richardson shared at 1,000 parts per million, easily enough to kill within an hour.
There were no working carbon monoxide detectors in the apartment.
City officials have embarked on efforts to enforce a law that requires annual inspections of rentals. City and county officials have made the rounds to talk to Newburgh residents about CO and the need for detectors, and to provide them with help through the county Healthy Neighborhoods program. This isn’t just a Newburgh problem.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s rough statistics on accidental carbon monoxide deaths that are not due to fires puts that toll at roughly 430 to 500 deaths per year, nationally. Carbon monoxide exposure accounts for about 15,000 emergency department visits per year.
Poison centers recorded 68,316 exposures between 2000 and 2009.
Carbon monoxide has no smell and no color. The gas is produced as a by-product when any hydrocarbon gas, propane, oil, coal, charcoal is burned. The gas binds to hemoglobin in your red blood cells, replacing the oxygen your body needs. Treatment of CO poisoning can involve being put on 100 percent oxygen, or in severe cases hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (www.cpsc.gov), about 150 deaths annually are attributable to CO poisoning causing by faulty or improperly-vented furnaces, stoves, water heaters, fireplaces or other hydrocarbon-powered appliances.
The signs of mild to moderate CO poisoning often begin with flu-like symptoms: headache, fatigue, shortness of breath, nausea, dizziness.
Exposure to higher levels or for longer duration can lead to confusion, vomiting, loss of coordination or consciousness and death.
Like any other hazard, carbon monoxide isn’t picky about ZIP codes or neighborhoods. A decade ago, I wrote about three people who died from carbon monoxide poisoning inside a house in Rock Hill because of a malfunctioning central air system. The house didn’t have a CO detector.
A week and a half after that, I talked to a Hurleyville man who survived CO poisoning from a sump pump in his basement. He told me that despite confusion, dizziness and feeling limp, he got outside to fresh air. His wife took him to the hospital. He ultimately needed hyperbaric therapy. He was lucky, he told me.
I don’t trust luck. Let’s all go double-check our CO detectors.