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CO poisoning


blackrose

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I've had headaches since Monday (and also some other symptoms which don't seem to fit CO poisoning). My CO alarm seems to be working fine. The digital readout says 16ppm. I'm just wondered if the alarm could be faulty?

 

Thanks

On a boat the size of yours, I's seriously have more than one alarm, anyway.

 

Why not invest in another ?

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I've had headaches since Monday (and also some other symptoms which don't seem to fit CO poisoning). My CO alarm seems to be working fine. The digital readout says 16ppm. I'm just wondered if the alarm could be faulty?

 

Thanks

 

How old is the alarm?

 

They only have a time limited life - up to 5 years,

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On a boat the size of yours, I's seriously have more than one alarm, anyway.

 

Why not invest in another ?

 

Yes, I used to have 2 but one died a while ago. I'll go and get another from Screwfix today.

 

But on the other hand I don't really understand why a bigger boat would need more alarms? The stove is in the middle of the boat and the alarm is on the ceiling about 10ft away. I don't see why that would need more alarms? If anything, I'd have thought a smaller boat would need more alarms? (Less air).

 

How old is the alarm?

 

They only have a time limited life - up to 5 years,

 

It doesn't have a date on it, but it says it's supposed to chirp after 7 years from start-up. I guess it's nearly there. I bought the boat in summer 2005 and put this alarm in about 2 years later. I had another one before.

Edited by blackrose
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I'll withdraw my remark about boat size then!

 

I think most canal boats will be safer with more than one, and on Chalice we have one in the living/area kitchen, but a second one in the bedroom. (Although on Sickle I might struggle to find a home for a second one, as no part of the "accomodation" is more than about 5 feet from the one we have!)

 

Ours aren't necessarily set off by the obvious things - it can be somebody else's stove or engine fumes blowing in an open vent, window or door, that triggers it for example, and nothing to do with anything that is on our boat.

 

The CO alarm we just had stop working actually knew it was 6 yeras old, and "self expires" at that point. I have no idea how many do that, but if they do become ineffective over time, it would be disappointing if there were nothing to stop you just carrying on using one, believing it to be offering you protection.

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Yes, you're right, it's wise to have more than one, although I do know people who look at me like I'm mad when I suggest they get a CO alarm for their boat!

 

I'm surprised to hear you say that your CO alarm has gone off as if it's a regular occurance? Mine has never gone off.

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The BSS have produced a leaflet with advice on avoiding CO poisoning, including advice on the number and placement of CO alarms, it can be found here.

 

It's sensible that you've recognised that you may have an issue with CO and are taking steps to exclude it as a potential problem. Do bear in mind that headaches are one of the most common non-specific symptoms that people report (pretty much any drug trial will receive plenty of reports of headaches and nausea, even from those subjects who've taken nothing more noxious than sugar pills), and that there are plenty of other causes. If you can exclude CO as a cause (by checking any appliance that could be leaking CO and getting another alarm or alarms like you said you're going to), it's perfectly possible that there's another reason for them.

  • Greenie 1
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It could be electrical fields all buzzing around in the boat and can't get out,''all trapped in a metal box like''.

I know a couple of people that suffer from headaches that live on boats with masses of high powered electrical stuff running for most of the time, their boats are always riddled and zapped with electrolosis too when they dock them. So if it does that to their hulls whats it doing to their brains, they must be like sponges now and there are definite signs that they're slowly being transformed into gibbering idiots. I've mentioned my views on this to them but they just call me the gibbering idiot, ho hum.

Try turning all your electrics off for a bit Mike. Unplug it all, the lot.

There was a program on Telly once about how people were suffering from these headaches that lived near electricity pylons and grid cables plus what they had on at home.

Hope this helps.

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On a boat the size of yours, I's seriously have more than one alarm, anyway.

 

Why not invest in another ?

 

We have two. A battery jobby from wickes and a Marine care dual watch which is wired in to the boats 12 volt system. I am not paranoid but two sources of different leccy makes sense to me.

 

Tim

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It could be electrical fields all buzzing around in the boat and can't get out,''all trapped in a metal box like''.

I know a couple of people that suffer from headaches that live on boats with masses of high powered electrical stuff running for most of the time, their boats are always riddled and zapped with electrolosis too when they dock them. So if it does that to their hulls whats it doing to their brains, they must be like sponges now and there are definite signs that they're slowly being transformed into gibbering idiots. I've mentioned my views on this to them but they just call me the gibbering idiot, ho hum.

Try turning all your electrics off for a bit Mike. Unplug it all, the lot.

There was a program on Telly once about how people were suffering from these headaches that lived near electricity pylons and grid cables plus what they had on at home.

Hope this helps.

 

I don't know about all that mumbo-jumbo :P. I've been living in this metal box for 7 years, why would it have changed in the last week?

 

I had to take some relatively new Jotamastic 87 epoxy out of the bilges on a boat at work because some idiot had painted over rust scale. I did it with a wire wheel and was only wearing a paper mask. I wondered if I'd inhaled too much paint dust? The only thing is that I'd had a week off work and then started feeling ill the Sunday before I went back to work, so unless there's a delayed reaction I doubt it would be that?

 

http://www.jotun.com/jotun%5Cpaints%5C20010077.nsf/0/CC228617178C5C50C12577EB00333AC4/$FILE/SDS%20-%20Jotamastic%2087%20MIO50%20Comp.%20A%20-%20Marine_Protective%20-%20English%20%28uk%29%20-%20Thailand.pdf?Openelement

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I don't know about all that mumbo-jumbo :P. I've been living in this metal box for 7 years, why would it have changed in the last week?

 

I had to take some relatively new Jotamastic 87 epoxy out of the bilges on a boat at work because some idiot had painted over rust scale. I did it with a wire wheel and was only wearing a paper mask. I wondered if I'd inhaled too much paint dust? The only thing is that I'd had a week off work and then started feeling ill the Sunday before I went back to work, so unless there's a delayed reaction I doubt it would be that?

 

http://www.jotun.com/jotun%5Cpaints%5C20010077.nsf/0/CC228617178C5C50C12577EB00333AC4/$FILE/SDS%20-%20Jotamastic%2087%20MIO50%20Comp.%20A%20-%20Marine_Protective%20-%20English%20%28uk%29%20-%20Thailand.pdf?Openelement

Titanium dioxide doesn't sound too good, have you any other maladies or symptoms cropped up like hair growing in the wrong places or has your complexion taken on a a silvery metalic hue?. perhaps its made you radio-active and you need checking over with a Guiga-counter. No but seriously I think your probably quite a sensitive person of the worrying kind and its just a spot of stress over your new job, your boat moving nearer to the job, commuting problems ect, and perhaps you can't quite see the wood for the trees at the moment, but i'm sure it'll all turn out fine. :unsure:

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I've had headaches since Monday (and also some other symptoms which don't seem to fit CO poisoning). My CO alarm seems to be working fine. The digital readout says 16ppm. I'm just wondered if the alarm could be faulty?

 

Thanks

If you're sensitive to it, that level may well be enough to give you a headache, especially if you're there for long periods of time and that's a constant reading.

 

I also find even very low levels make me feel sleepy and sometimes my lips start to tingle. If that happens it's time to open all the windows and doors and then get out for a bit.

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Titanium dioxide doesn't sound too good, have you any other maladies or symptoms cropped up like hair growing in the wrong places or has your complexion taken on a a silvery metalic hue?. perhaps its made you radio-active and you need checking over with a Guiga-counter. No but seriously I think your probably quite a sensitive person of the worrying kind and its just a spot of stress over your new job, your boat moving nearer to the job, commuting problems ect, and perhaps you can't quite see the wood for the trees at the moment, but i'm sure it'll all turn out fine. :unsure:

 

It might be stress, but the NHS Direct woman thought I was having a stroke last Sunday because I wasn't making much sense and she called me an ambulance. I had to get across the river in the bloody dinghy with the river in full flood. The ambulance bloke said he thought I'd had a stroke too, but after a brain scan the doctor said he thought it may be migrane and not a stroke.

 

http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Stroke_and_migraine

 

I never realised a migraine could make you stutter? I couldn't talk properly to the boss on Wednesday which was a bit embarrassing. He seemed to think it was nervousness.

 

If you're sensitive to it, that level may well be enough to give you a headache, especially if you're there for long periods of time and that's a constant reading.

 

I also find even very low levels make me feel sleepy and sometimes my lips start to tingle. If that happens it's time to open all the windows and doors and then get out for a bit.

 

I thought it had to go up to about 300ppm for the alarm to sound?

Edited by blackrose
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I thought it had to go up to about 300ppm for the alarm to sound?

Maybe, but it makes me feel ill a long time before the alarm sounds.

 

In fact, it's getting a splitting headache, dry mouth, tingling lips and feeling drowsy that normally causes me to go and look at the alarm to see what reading it's showing. :lol:

 

Edit: have just checked, and the Fire Angel alarm I have (Data sheet) will sound the alarm if the level stays at or above 30ppm for more than 2 hours.

 

Continuous low level CO can cause health issues, it seems. 300ppm, on the other hand, is a more instant get-out-of-the-boat-now emergency.

Edited by sociable_hermit
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My mum used to suffer from migraine, all coloured light before her eyes. This came on at a wedding reception once and we found the cure. I got her a single shot of whiskey, she knocked it back and said the migraine just lifted immediately, gone!. From then on she always kept a bottle indoors for that purpose and it always worked. But i believe there are different types of migraine so the whiskey thing may not work in your case.

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Maybe, but it makes me feel ill a long time before the alarm sounds.

 

In fact, it's getting a splitting headache, dry mouth, tingling lips and feeling drowsy that normally causes me to go and look at the alarm to see what reading it's showing. :lol:

 

Perhaps you're right. I thought it was 300ppm, but some figures here say 30ppm. If mine was 16ppm perhaps that's too high?

 

http://www.carbon-monoxide-survivor.com/carbon-monoxide-levels-in-the-air.html

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My mum used to suffer from migraine, all coloured light before her eyes. This came on at a wedding reception once and we found the cure. I got her a single shot of whiskey, she knocked it back and said the migraine just lifted immediately, gone!. From then on she always kept a bottle indoors for that purpose and it always worked. But i believe there are different types of migraine so the whiskey thing may not work in your case.

There is a herb called Feverfew that is really good for migraines. It tastes really bitter in its natural form but can also be obtained as tablets.

 

Much as I love Scotch I think that would make a migraine 10x worse :wacko:

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There is a herb called Feverfew that is really good for migraines. It tastes really bitter in its natural form but can also be obtained as tablets.

 

Much as I love Scotch I think that would make a migraine 10x worse :wacko:

Not necessarily whiskey thins the blood and speeds up the circulation a bit. Brandy does the opposite I believe thickening it and slowing it down.

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Perhaps you're right. I thought it was 300ppm, but some figures here say 30ppm. If mine was 16ppm perhaps that's too high?

 

http://www.carbon-monoxide-survivor.com/carbon-monoxide-levels-in-the-air.html

I think over a long period of time that might make you feel ill. Exposure to 16ppm all night while you're asleep would probably make you feel rough in the morning, for example.

 

It would certainly be worth investigating why it's showing a reading at all. Apart from very smoky light-ups or the chimney getting partially blocked up with soot, mine always shows zero. Is the fire and the flue all ok? Do you have enough vents for fresh air to get in?

 

In the short term I'd crack open a window near the fire, assuming you haven't already.

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We have 2 CO alarms.... One just above pillow height over the bed, and one in the lounge, about 15cm from the ceiling. The lounge one shows temperature and CO levels, along with the max CO over the past so many days.

 

On the few occasions they have gone off, (bedroom one usually), it's because I've emptied hot ash from the fire and not removed it outside. The instructions say that adults can tolerate 35ppm without effect. Our Boatman is in the lounge, so perhaps the bedroom alarm is more sensitive?

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