Myth-7

Faulty gas appliances cause CO poisoning that leaves hundreds of people dead each year.  (Wrong!)

This has to be the most MIS-QUOTED, misreported or lied about set of numbers in history.

On average, deaths caused by carbon monoxide and heating equipment stands at 85 people per year! 

It’s NOT 200 or more, and definitely not the “thousands who have perished” as explained by the news media.

According to the CDC’s (Centers for Disease Control) “Non-Fire Carbon Monoxide Deaths Associated with the Use of Consumer Products Summary of Annual Estimates” for the periods from 1990 to 2004 (15 years) the average for deaths caused by heating equipment is 85 deaths per year.  This includes LP gas heating, natural gas heating and unspecified gas heating.

If you take into account the coal/wood heating, kerosene/fuel oil heating, diesel and “unspecified” heating categories, the average number of CO deaths per year for the past 15 years is 124 people.

Losing 124 people each year is a tragedy, but that number is a far cry from the hundreds or thousands of deaths claimed by media reports and other governmental agencies.

The issue should be explaining how to find the real causes of CO poisoning, not whether gas appliances can or do produce some level of CO.  ALL gas appliances will produce dangerous levels of CO under the wrong circumstances.

Give me 15 minutes in your home and I guarantee you that I can produce deadly levels of carbon monoxide from your furnace without touching or adjusting the furnace itself! 

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