Prevention better than treatment with carbon monoxide poisoning

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on February 18, 2013 at 8:13 AM, updated February 18, 2013 at 9:58 AM
monoxide.jpg This file photo shows a simulated use of a hyperbaric chamber at Baystate Medical Center. The chamber delivers 100 percent oxygen to the patient inside and is the primary treatment for severe carbon monoxide poisoning, decompression sickness and air and gas embolisms.  

When it comes to carbon monoxide poisoning, Dr. Jonathan Bayuk, of Hampden County Physician Associates, said the "key is prevention, not treatment" for this life threatening illness.

"The body shuts down, the brain shuts down," said the area allergist and clinical immunologist of what happens when the body becomes poisoned with the gas.

Bayuk said carbon monoxide is "a by-product of burning fossil fuels" and "doesn't occur in nature" except for combustion.

"The carbon monoxide binds to blood cells 240 times stronger than oxygen. The cells' ability to get oxygen is blocked. Oxygen is not able to be transported and tissues suffocate," said Bayuk of what happens when someone breathes in too much of the gas as a result of poor ventilation or the malfunction of an appliance run on such fuel.

He cited the example of sitting in a car with the engine running inside a garage with the door closed.The combustion process in gas-powered motors is incomplete, meaning carbon monoxide gas is emitted, and can become deadly when not properly vented.

A young boy died in the Boston area when he sat inside a running car whose tail pipe was buried in the snow while his father shoveled around the car. Two fatalities occurred recently in Springfield when a gasoline-powered generator was operated inside a house.

"Carbon monoxide has no odor," Bayuk said. "You put a generator in the garage or basement and the carbon monoxide can fill the house without you smelling it and knowing it is there."

The gas is also colorless and tasteless.

"You get a headache, dizziness and fatigue with early carbon monoxide poisoining," Bayuk said, adding that this process becomes hard "to reverse" the longer the gas binds with the blood cells and the person's oxygen level goes down.

"The carbon monoxide binds so well that it can't be reversed in a normal setting. You need a hyperbaric oxygen chamber," Bayuk said of the need to get immediate care.

In this type of therapy, the patient is placed inside a chamber where the air pressure is twice that of normal atmospheric pressure. This helps speed the replacement in the blood cells of the carbon monoxide with oxygen.

In milder cases, a patient may be given pure oxygen to breath in through a mask or on a ventilator if he or she can not do so on their own.

Tips to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning:






Don't burn anything in a stove or fireplace that isn't vented.

Don't heat your house with a gas oven.

From the Centers for Disease Control website