Last winter my family and I had a scare while we were enjoying our Christmas dessert: the steady beeping of my parents’ carbon monoxide detector. It wasn’t a false alarm, and we all had to evacuate while we waited for the fire department to tell us it was safe to go back inside. Luckily it was just a defective battery, so once Dad changed it we were good to go back in.
Carbon monoxide poisoning is no joke, and in fact the symptoms can look a lot like the flu. Read more about how to stay safe here.In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, each year more than 400 Americans die from unintentional CO poisoning, more than 20,000 visit the emergency room and more than 4,000 are hospitalized due to CO poisoning.
The risk is higher in winter, because cold weather means more people are running the kinds of heating units, such as gas furnaces and oil or coal stoves, that can emit carbon monoxide if they malfunction.
If you don’t already have a carbon monoxide detector, please buy one now. They cost as little as $30 – and yours might just save your life!
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