Landlords’ gas safety duties—Stephanie Trotter puts the case for reform
Carbon monoxide (CO) is a deadly gas that can be emitted from any faulty heating or cooking appliance powered by burning any carbon-based fuel (eg gas, oil, wood, coal, smokeless fuel, petrol, diesel etc). Appliances include cookers, boilers, fires, generators, barbecues and vehicles.
CO cannot be detected using any human sense. It is important to note, however, that although people cannot smell CO, it is possible to smell other products of combustion. Death from less than 2% of CO in the air can occur in between one and three minutes.
Firefighters talking about smoke (which does smell) say that it only takes three breaths; the first you don’t know there is anything wrong, the second you suspect there might be but by the third you are unable to take any action.
A report by the All Party Parliamentary Carbon Monoxide group in 2011, Preventing Carbon Monoxide Poisoning, estimated that as many as 4,000 people each year are diagnosed with low-level carbon monoxide exposure, with a further 200 admittances to hospital with serious
