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How to keep warm in winter, and stay alive.
Isn’t it the same using your stove in the caravan as using a portable camping heater?
Very different. When you are cooking on the stove you are active and watching, and even if for longer periods like up to three hours to cook a roast, you and your partner will be moving around and probably going in and out of the door. You will probably have a window or two open to avoid a steamy caravan. Not all caravans have a flued range hood.
In the cool of the evening you may be sitting relaxing with the windows and door shut to keep the warm air in. Perhaps you are sitting in front of the television or reading a book. The gas running only for an hour will do no harm you say. Carbon monoxide filters into the air. Now warm you feel sleepy and think nothing of it - you will turn off the gas and go to bed when the programme or chapter is finished.
The big danger with carbon monoxide is that there are no warning signs - it just makes you drowsy, so falling asleep before you intended is easy to do. Then without turning off the device as you had planned, you just won't wake up.
There are other health risks with unflued gas so even using a carbon monoxide alarm is not the full answer. The only answer is don't do it. It is illegal and for very good reasons. Deaths have occurred.
This
review from CamperTrailers.org looks at a few types of popular portable heaters, none of which are suitable for indoor use.
Some even say "Low oxygen safety shut off system". So will that protect you? Yes you say? No it won't. Carbon
monoxide binds to haemoglobin in our blood in place of the needed oxygen, and does so in preference to the oxygen in the air.
There will be plenty of oxygen These units are sold through camping stores and the illegality of using in a caravan,
camper or tent is not emphasised. This is very different to carbon dioxide poisoning, where carbon dioxide sinks and if
you are in that level, you suffocate from lack of oxygen. The low oxygen cut out may work for carbon dioxide build up, but is
not the answer for carbon monoxide.
Exceeding the concentration in air of 9 parts per million for more than eight hours will have adverse health effects. Average occupational exposures above 10 parts per million (sustained through the work day) are unacceptable if your goal is normal function and good health long term. Respiratory capacity decreases and the risk of heart attack increases at levels well below 50 parts per million. Carbon monoxide detectors, which are designed to protect against high concentration of carbon monoxide, are required to sound an alarm when concentrations are greater than 100 parts per million. From Nutramed (link no longer available).
By all means use a carbon monoxide detector in your home or camper, but do not use one as an excuse for running an unflued fuel heater in a small enclosed area such as a camper or caravan.
Why is it different using a portable gas heater in a caravan, camper or tent to using one in a house?
It is not. Look at the links in this article where fatalities and near fatalities have occurred in Australia.
Two young boys lost their lives from carbon monoxide poisoning due to a faulty gas heater in a rental home. The Chase and Tyler Foundation and Carbon Monoxide-The Silent Killer (The Chase and Tyler Foundation) on Facebook.
Using an exterior type of gas heater inside caused a fatality.
Another fatality in a boat.
Energy Safe Victoria. Carbon monoxide can kill in less than
30 minutes.
There are many more cases of fatalities from carbon monoxide poisoning from Australia and around the world. See some hereunder.
Camping deaths and close calls are reported every winter.
During cold spells in winter, people seek methods of keeping warm, particularly when camping away from mains electricity. Some even say you can use portable or outdoor heater such as gas or heat beads. This is a very dangerous idea. Other methods such as a ceramic flowerpot over a gas stove burner are mentioned on the internet. This is even more dangerous, as the incomplete combustion puts more harmful gases into the air.
Carbon Monoxide is the same weight as air, so unlike domestic cooking gas or carbon dioxide, it will not settle to the floor. It mixes with the air and is not noticeable. Carbon Monoxide warning devices may be a smart idea, but they may not give warning in sufficient time, particularly if infants and elderly people are present. Brain damage can result even if you are found in time to save your life. An incident in Perth leaves a young man severely brain damaged. Carbon Monoxide is The Silent Shadow
Worldwide, thousands of deaths each year are attributed to carbon monoxide poisoning.
In the United States of America alone each year, more than 400 Americans die from unintentional CO poisoning not linked to fires, more than 20,000 visit the emergency room, and more than 4,000 are hospitalised.
As well as deaths, there are many more people suffering life changing injuries and disabilities from carbon monoxide poisoning.
In one such case, a man was unconscious in the space of just minutes after entering his shed where had been working on restoring on an old caravan and had left a generator charging a battery. Doctors were forced to choose between his legs or his life, amputating both legs.
Prolonged and undiagnosed low level exposure can cause brain damage and even death. A lady suffered carbon monoxide poisoning from her heater over a period of weeks. Eventually, the carbon monoxide poisoning almost killed her. She was “very, very unwell” in hospital in a month-long coma. She was given a seven per cent chance of living.
Some of the linked news articles have expired on the internet, however the warnings are just as valid. Don't become a statistic; be Carbon Monoxide aware.
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Deaths have occurred while sitting in an idling car to keep warm, or if left running in a garage connected to the house. A mother
and three children were found dead in New Zealand when fumes from a car left idling in the closed garage entered the house.
See subsequent Coroner's Report.
An elderly couple died when a car was left running in their garage.
Another car running a garage leaves two dead, and a lucky escape for a family when an ambulance is called.
In USA a new wave of fatalities and injuries from those using keyless cars thinking they have turned them off when leaving the garage. When connected to or under the house, carbon monoxide has entered causing at least 28 deaths since 2006 and dozens of others have been injured, some left with brain damage suffer injuries. From New York Times.
Tragedy averted by a child who noticed his baby sibling had gone limp, in a boat cabin while the motor was running.
A coroner’s report on two deaths in a fishing boat: “It should be apparent from
the substantive finding above that both deaths were entirely avoidable due, as they were, to a poorly installed and maintained petrol
driven generator and the absence of any device to warn as to the presence of carbon monoxide in the cabin,” he said.
A New Zealand backpackers' hostel was evacuated after the building was filled with carbon monoxide after the fumes from a petrol powered concrete cutter being used on an adjacent site came in through the air vents.
See more about the Carbon Monoxide risks at home, in your car and at work on the next page.
No. Four people, including a baby, had a lucky escape when other campers found the adults unconscious. Family members checked on the crying baby and found the unconscious adults in time to save them.
What other appliances are unsafe to use?
Some common products that can emit carbon monoxide when you use them are:
Barbecues that use wood, charcoal or gas
Portable cookers that use gas or kerosene
Portable heaters indoor or outdoor that use gas or kerosene
Flued gas heaters (under certain conditions)
Electrical generators that are diesel or petrol powered
Electrical equipment that is diesel or petrol powered (such as pumps, chainsaws, blowers and welders).
FromProduct Safety
The CO level after 75 minutes was 353 ppm (parts per million). Interpolated results suggest that the CO level of 1200 ppm would have been reached after 4.0 hours. At very high levels (400 ppm) the symptoms intensify and will be life threatening after three hours. Exposure to levels of 1200 ppm or greater are immediately dangerous to life.
Ten year old boy dies from carbon monoxide fumes from a gas fridge used in a holiday cabin
Using a portable barbecue indoors for cooking or heating is a common cause of carbon monoxide poisoning.
A Penrith family of four nearly died
Fire authorities are urging homeowners to be mindful of the risks associated with burning coals indoors after a family narrowly avoided deadly carbon monoxide poisoning overnight.
A neighbour said he got a desperate call from a young woman saying her husband and his parents had mysteriously dropped to the floor. The woman who called then also collapsed. Their rescuer said the family had been using a charcoal barbecue to cook their evening meal before bringing the warm embers inside to heat the home.
The three women and two men, aged from their teens into their 50s, developed headaches and nausea after using abarbecue inside for cooking.
Coals and heat beads when camping: A few leftover coals to heat the van won’t hurt? Oh yes it will, it can kill. A couple in their 30s died from carbon monoxide poisoning in their camper van in Switzerland.
A 14 year old girls dies from heat beads used for warmth in the porch of a tent in the United Kingdom
A couple died using a wood fired heater in a cabin. The couple had fallen asleep with a woodchip fire burning during a long weekend camping trip and are believed to have died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Even a flued woodfire can result in deaths.
In Germany, six teenagers died while celebrating the 18th birthday of one of the victims in a hut in cold weather, running a wood fire and a fuel heater that is not approved for indoor use.
Petrol generators used indoors during power outages can be fatal
See more about the Carbon Monoxide risks at home, in your car and at work, and How to keep warm when camping on the next page.