CORGI Technical Services (CTS) has warned people not to assume that carbon monoxide (CO) dangers are limited to natural gas appliances such as boilers.
After recent media coverage of several incidents of CO poisoning, including the death of heating installer Matthew Nixon, CTS' chief executive officer Bill Paton said it was important to remember that "any fossil fuel has the potential to product CO if it burns incorrectly".
"Carbon Monoxide is lethal and non-smelling and can protrude in levels that can lead to death," he added. "We recently investigated a double fatality and found a solid-fuel appliance that had not been maintained correctly, leaving the flue blocked and producing extremely high levels of CO.”
"The number of incidents recorded this winter is considerably higher than last year which is a massive cause for concern and one that could be dramatically reduced by a simple test,” said Paton.
A report from CO-Gas Safety said that 594 people in the UK have died as a result of CO poisoning between September, 1995 and August, 2010, with almost 70% of these deaths occuring in the home.
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