Survey Shows Many Homeowners Unclear on Carbon Monoxide Safety
Service Experts survey questioned homeowners in the U.S. and Canada
DALLAS — Fifty-nine percent of non-fire carbon monoxide related deaths occur between November and February. While 94 percent of homeowners know that the furnace can release deadly carbon monoxide gas, more than half (53.7 percent) don’t take simple steps that can prevent that from happening.
That is a major finding of a survey completed on behalf of Service Experts Heating & Air Conditioning. The survey questioned 1,000 homeowners in the U.S. and Canada about their knowledge of carbon monoxide. While 50.1 percent of homeowners are very concerned or concerned about carbon monoxide, there are significant gaps in what they know about the subject. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has described carbon monoxide poisoning as a leading cause of unintentional poisoning deaths in the United States, causing approximately 15,000 emergency room visits and nearly 500 deaths annually. As many as 68,000 cases of non-fatal carbon monoxide exposures were reported to poison control centers between 2000 and 2009.