Carbon Monoxide:

What You Don’t See, Taste or Smell Can Kill You! (click here)

Inside the home:

• Install CO alarms (labelled by a recognized laboratory, example ULC, CSA) inside your home to provide early warning of accumulating CO
• CO alarms should be installed in a central location outside each separate sleeping area. If bedrooms are spaced apart, each area will need a CO alarm. CO alarms are not substitutes for smoke alarms. Know the difference between the sound of smoke alarms and CO alarms.
• Have fuel-burning heating equipment (fireplaces, furnaces, water heaters, wood and coal stoves, space or portable heaters) and chimneys inspected by a professional every year before cold weather sets in.
• When purchasing new heating and cooking equipment, select products tested and labelled by a recognized testing laboratory.
• When using a fireplace, open the flue for adequate ventilation.
• Never use your oven to heat your home.
• When buying an existing home, have a qualified technician evaluate the integrity of the heating and cooking systems, as well as the sealed spaces between the garage and house.

Outside the home

• If you need to warm a vehicle, remove it from the garage immediately after starting it. Do not run a vehicle, generator, or other fuelled engine or motor indoors, even if garage doors are open. Make sure the exhaust pipe of a running vehicle is not covered with snow.
• Generators should be operated in well-ventilated locations outdoors away from all doors, windows and vent openings.
• During and after a snowstorm, make sure vents for the dryer, furnace, stove, and fireplace are clear of snow build-up.
• Only use barbecue grills which can produce CO outside. Never use them in the home, garage or near building openings.
• When camping, remember to use battery-powered lights in tents trailers, and motor homes.
• If your CO alarm sounds Immediately move to a fresh air location outdoors and call for help. Remain at the fresh air location until emergency personnel say it is ok.
• If the audible trouble signal sounds, check for low batteries or other trouble indicators.