As the first wave of cold winter air stretches southward, people would probably feel the chills when they get up early on Feb 9. It measured 9.7℃ at Tanshui this morning, which is the coldest by far in this winter. NFA would like to remind the public to keep warm and watch for ventilation when using gas-fueled water heater to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning.

The statistics of NFA show that there were in total 830 cases of CO poisoning from 2004 to 2016 due to inappropriate use of gas-fueled water heaters, averaging 64 per year. Last year (2016) there were 61 cases of CO poisoning in Taiwan, causing 3 deaths and 174 injuries. Looking deep into these cases, people tend to close windows tightly to keep the cold air out to stay warm; some people have their gas-fueled water heaters installed inappropriately and they often take long hot showers in cold weather while neglecting the ventilation. All these factors add up to incomplete combustion of gas that generates CO.

If you start feeling dizzy and nauseous while taking a hot bath, this could be the sign of CO poisoning. Please stay calm when you find someone suffering from CO poisoning. Turn off gas-fueled water heater and anything that may generate CO immediately to prevent CO level in the air from increasing, and open the doors and windows to improve ventilation before calling 119 for help.

To help people better understand the scenario where incorrect installation of gas-fueled water heater may lead to the generation of CO, NFA works with Chinese Fire Protection Safety Centre on an experiment of CO level accumulation showing people how CO is generated and how dangerous it can be as a household hazard.