Carbon Monoxide and AF

[Threecats]

Good morning

This post is more of a reminder for those who heat their homes with gas, or use wood burners etc. to make sure you have a carbon monoxide detector and, if you do, that it’s in date.

I’d been waking in the mornings for a while feeling pretty rubbish, with headaches, lightheadedness and sometimes nausea . I thought it was perhaps the side-effects of my medication, or being in persistent AF, or just sleeping badly etc. Once I got up and out I’d start to feel better. Stupidly, I never made the connection between feeling better outside the house and worse inside! Anyway,, a week ago my boiler, which is located in an airing cupboard opposite my bedroom, sprang a leak. My usual heating engineer couldn’t come out, so I called one my neighbour uses. After completing the repair he did a few safety checks and discovered the boiler was leaking carbon monoxide. I then discovered my CO detector had expired two years previously!

Since the boiler seal has been replaced I am waking in the morning feeling absolutely fine, so clearly it had been the effects of low level CO poisoning that had been the reason for my morning symptoms. Interestingly, I have since discovered that CO poisoning can cause AF. That makes me wonder if exposure to CO over a long period of time is what has caused me to go from having hardly any AF episodes to becoming persistent in the space of a week. Who knows 🤷‍♀️ Anyway, I’m attaching a report from a case, of a lady presenting in the Emergency Room with a first episode of AF caused by CO poisoning. I hope the link won’t be removed, as I think this is an important issue.

journals.lww.com/em-news/bl...

So my message is to make sure to check your CO detectors are in date and working and your smoke alarms too, whilst you’re there!

As for my previous heating engineer, that’s another story, as he’d only serviced the boiler last December but hadn’t picked up on the leak!

[jeanjeannie50]

Crumbs thanks for warning us. I feel sure that my CO detector is out of date. Will get a new one, this is a wake up call to us all, thank you.

Glad that you're feeling better now. Phew!!

Jean

[Threecats in reply to jeanjeannie50]

Thanks Jean, yes, I’m feeling much better now. I couldn’t believe it to begin with as I’ve had the boiler serviced every year by the same Gas Safe registered guy who installed it, so had no idea there was a problem! Glad it’s alerted you to check your CO detector, anyway👍

[Finvola]

Thank you for posting this, Threecats - CO leaks can be deadly.

Good that you are OK.

[Threecats in reply to Finvola]

Thanks Finvola.

[BobD Volunteer]

Yes CO poisoning can mimic flu like symptoms as well . The thing people need to understand about CO warning meters is that it is not just batteries that "run down" with age. The sensor also degrades with time so the whole unit MUST be replaced periodically. They should, like smoke alarms, be tested regularly. In our case only when the cat is out or he freaks out and nearly has a heart attack! lol 😁

Boilers also need annual service and Britsh Gas can provide that service for a reasonable fee with 24 hour response.

[Threecats in reply to BobD]

That’s a very good point about the sensor in the detector degrading with time, thanks for pointing that out Bob.

As for the boiler, mine was serviced every year by the same chap who installed it 16 years previously. According to the guy who found the CO leak, Worcester Bosch sent out a technical bulletin in 2019 asking servicing engineers to specifically check around the burner gasket seal when servicing the type of boiler I have, as failure is a known problem past the 5 year mark. Looks like my original chap didn’t read the memo!

[CDreamer]

Good reminder - thanks!

[Ppiman]

That is a salutary warning. In my own daughter-in-law's family, there was, many years ago, a fatality from just this so we are always extra vigilant and have detectors of the latest and best kind.

An unusual detector is the own-brand Amazon air quality monitor, which strangely detects CO, rather than CO2, along with PM2,5 and other things. I wouldn't use it alone for CO detection, but it does work well as an air quality monitor. I find CO2 monitors more generally useful to indicate when a window needs opening, though, so eventually gave up using it.

Steve

[Threecats in reply to Ppiman]

I’m glad to hear you have up to date detectors Ppiman. It is indeed a silent killer.

[Ppiman in reply to Threecats]

When our son and his wife moved into their new home, the boiler hadn't been serviced for a long time but we had it checked anyway and were told it was safe but old. Within an hour of their moving in, the CO monitor I put in their kitchen sounded and showed a tiny concentration. We were shocked. The heating engineer who later came decided the boiler needed changing.

Steve

[Threecats in reply to Ppiman]

Wow, that’s the trouble with these things, they can be missed. Thank goodness for the CO detector you installed. As I replied to Bob earlier, I’d only had the boiler serviced last December, by the engineer who’d originally installed it for me 16 years ago and he missed it, too. Apparently, according to the technical bulletin I read from Worcester Bosch, only analysing the flue gasses, as is normally done during a service, as you know, doesn’t pick up the leak from the burner seal failing, hence their directive to engineers to do an additional check on this area . Unfortunately my original guy must have missed the memo!

[Ppiman in reply to Threecats]

It was such the same with us. He did point out that the boiler was past its sell by date and that there was a small issue with the flue but he was as surprised as us that CO was detected in the kitchen. It was a tiny amount, but still, it forced us to change the boiler immediately.

Steve

[Omniscient1]

Thank you for posting this. I knew someone who died alongside her partner from CO poisoning about 10 years ago. Such a loss.Unlike smoke and flames it's a silent killer.

[Threecats in reply to Omniscient1]

I’m sorry to hear of your experience Omniscient, that is indeed the trouble with Carbon Monoxide. I had absolutely no idea it was present at all.

[Omniscient1 in reply to Threecats]

People forget or just don't know that CO is odourless, the smell from cars is actually smelly combustion waste containing (odourless) CO.Rather like methane (natural gas) in its normal form is also odourless.

At least we can now get cheap, effective detectors now.

[Threecats in reply to Omniscient1]

That’s very true and as you say, thankfully we can get effective detectors these days.

[Autumn_Leaves in reply to Omniscient1]

That’s shocking. So awful.

[Qualipop]

A very good point. I noticed my detector is due for renewal just a few weeks ago but had it checked and it's still working. Must get a new one ordered. Oh and a reminder my plumber made- they should be placed very high up in the room.

[Threecats in reply to Qualipop]

That is a very good point Qualipop, CO detectors should indeed be placed higher on the wall - above door level but 6” below the ceiling height according to instructions I have here.

[Qualipop in reply to Threecats]

Yes, I'd just taken mine down to check it and the plumber picked up on it immediately.

[Autumn_Leaves]

Thanks for the reminder. These monitors are not expensive, they’re easy enough to buy in the shops and online, but we need to check them periodically in case the batteries go flat. Shockingly, a friend of mine told me she didn’t know what a CO monitor was!

[Threecats in reply to Autumn_Leaves]

Very true Ahtumn. For the sake of a few pounds spent on a monitor , it could potentially save a life. As for batteries going flat, that is certainly something to check, but, as Bob mentioned earlier, the sensor itself degrades with time as well,, hence they have an expiry date, despite battery status. That is what caught me out. I could have sworn the monitor had only been up for three years, turns out I was wrong! I’ve written the expiry date on the new one where I can see it this time!

Sad to say I don’t think your friend is alone in not being aware of CO monitors.

[Autumn_Leaves]

Good job you detected the problem. It is worrying that people aren’t aware they should have one in the first place but it seems that knowing that they wear out is important too.