To feel a bit of idiot because I didnt know this?

[OhDoAdmitMrsDeVere]

I was listening to R4 last week and there was a peice on Carbon Monoxide poisoning.
A bereaved mother bravely shared her terrible story of losing her young son.

I knew Carbon Monoxide is leathal, I knew that you should check your boiler and I DO have an alarm.

What struck me about this story was that her poor boy wasnt killed by fumes from her boiler but by her neighbour's faulty boiler.

The fumes had seeped through the brickwork and killed her son.

I am pretty safety conscious. I have lost a child and unfortunately know many other bereaved parents. I have lost 'it wont happen to us' forever.
But it had not crossed my mind that this could happen.

How many of us live next to dodgy rented properties, people who dont bother to get their appliances checked and/or dont have alarms? I live next to a house that is rented to tenants and the owners live in a 'shed' in the garden. They dont look after the main house and their boiler is on the other side of mine.

I know this is a bit of a dodgy AIBU but I was really really struck by this woman's story and I thought it might be worth sharing.

Please get an alarm. They are quite cheap and I got mine from Lloyds Chemist when they were doing a special offer.

Gosh! Thanks for sharing.

Um, YANBU

Thank you for the timely warning.

If you get a free standing alarm like this can you just have it anywhere in the house and it will detect? It doesn't need specific placemet like a smoke alarm?

Very tragic story that has scared me somewhat

My family and i nearly died from CO poisoning just before christmas this year. It came from an external source, that has never been located.
very scary

My mum got carbon monoxide poisoning despite the fact that my dad is a registered gas engineer. She used to like to sit in a room at the back of the house reading. Their neighbour built a conservatory that blocked the flue ( I think). Mum suffered from headaches listlessness and nausea for weeks. Dr said it was nerves! Luckily the problem was discovered before she became seriously ill. She was the only one in the family affected because she sat in this room the most.

Why the implication that rented properties are more likely to cause problems? They have to have a new gas safety certificate issued every 12 months.

Rushes off to buy alarm...

I didnt want to scare people exactly Gobler but I was really shocked.

It made me realise how important it was to have an alarm even if we kept our boiler serviced.

As someone who is pretty vigilant about safety - I am not at all precious but I will admit I wont take chances - I was taken aback that this had not occoured to me.

I guessed that it wouldnt have occoured to many others.

Rented properties are on most cases safer than owner occupied ones as landlords have to get a gas safety test and certificate every year.

Very good warning, quite scary really. When we had a new boiler installed, I was reassured that it has full safety and if it starts to leak it would shut off and therefore stop the leak. I never got an alarm as figured no point, have now just ordered one though just in case.

Thanks.

I said 'dodgy rented properties'

My next door neighbours live in a shed in their back garden. Do you think they have all the necessary safety certs for their boiler?

So shall we stop trying to derail the thread? Thanks

Your neighbours live in a shed?...! But re: your post, that's very scary and I did NOT know that. Makes me want to knock on demand to see their alarm/safety checks etc. Thanks for alerting

YANBU - needs to go on the Mnet front page.

Just bought gobler's alarm from amazon. Do you get commission gobler?

I work for a gas/electric company. Part of my job is to investigate an co2 poisonings report. All the companies do it. I check if they are our customer and if we have visited, do we look after any gas appliances, have they been serviced etc. We get the report via the nhs. I investigate anywhere from 10-50 cases a week. Most are properties the owner lives in. If you live in your own house you're under no obligation to have your gas appliances serviced. I would estimate about 30% are from external sources. Unfortunately I investigated 3 deaths last week. Its an awful part of my job. Its very serious and the OP is right, everyone should have an alarm. It can/does come from anywhere.

Thanks for that DPrince. How awful for you to have to deal with that on a regular basis.

elpha & puds I meant to say something about your stories too. Sounds horrible. I am glad you are all ok though.

I have an alarm downstairs - should I have one upstairs too? My neighbours boiler would be downstairs on the opposite side of their house though so maybe less of a worry? (Semi detached houses)

How can you tell if they work by the way? Its not like you can hold a lighter to it or burn the toast!

no, sadly no commision, haven't even bought it myself yet, was waiting to see if anyone could answer mt question about placing it, am clueless.

Mine has a flashing light on it.

BTW I just emailed the lady who was on the show last week. I wanted to thank her for sharing her story to raise awareness.

I sometimes do bits about childhood cancer and although I know its important it also takes a lot of of me.

I can only imagine how hard it has been for this mum to keep going with her campaign amidst her grief.

I told her I had started this thread to try and spread the word and she seemed pleased.

So shall we try and keep it going for as long as we can? MN has so many members from all over the world, living in all kinds of accomodation in all kinds of situations. It would be amazing to help this brave woman get the word out.

The programme is on Listen Again (or whatever its called now). It is You and Yours and is at the top of the list atm. Its set out in chapters so you can find it easily.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01dvzg3

I worry about this too. We live in a rented property and we now have a sensible landlord and gas alarm things.
Our old landlord was rubbish though, and although the gas safety test on the boiler showed that the boiler was bordering on unsafe, he wouldn't replace it. A year between tests is a long time.

I was given one - its like a smoke alarm - and it shrieks when I burn the toast. There are ones with a little colour bar too that turn red if there is a problem. I prefer the shrieky one though.

An audible co2 detector is best. A flashing light (or some change colour) can be missed espec if your asleep. Most no have a flashing light to tell you its working, It will also bleep when the battery is dying. Intermittent beeps for battery, if its beeping constantly (every second) its detected co2. Its awful and it makes me sad. To the pp who was asking about where to have them. I have 2 (the job makes me paranoid) on each floor of my house so that's 6 altogether. The safety standards on where new boilers can be fitted have changed to try and help this. Old boilers don't have to be moved, but new one can only be fitted in certain places. The problem can be internal gas pipes. If there is a small leak on a pip in the wall/floor co2 can leak in. I also agree the M N should put this on here.

thanks DeVerve i still get flashbacks to the feeling you get just before i lost conciousness, it was an awful feeling but we have detectors galore now so hopefully wont happen again