Carbon Monoxide poisoning !

There was a risk eventuality this past weekend in Sydney.   A long run of " Indian Summer " came to an end and winter briefly bared it's fangs when a cold front swept in from the south - and temperatures dropped across the city.

A family of five in Liverpool was rushed to hospital and treated for carbon monoxide poisoning.  Three children - aged 11, 6 and 1 were the worst affected and it seems that the parents had resorted to a desperate measure to try and stay warm.     They had found some coal, put it in a dish and were burning it in the bedroom in which all the family were sleeping.   Without ventilation, this fire was producing carbon monoxide and could easily have caused the death of all five people.

The authorities expect a spate of similar accidents in the coming winter months.  Desperate people resort to desperate solutions when the cold starts to really bite.   Bringing the BBQ in and firing it up seems a logical way of keeping warm to some people who are unaware that any unventilated fire can produce a deadly gas in a closed room.    Even unflued gas heaters need a slightly open window to constantly replenish the air supply.

This coming winter will bring an increased hazard because of higher tariffs for both electricity and gas.   From July 1, gas will cost an extra seventeen percent and this will make many reluctant to use this heating method because of bill fear.    The danger is that some people will stray into great danger as they think up options to get around the heating problem.

This risk will exacerbate amongst new arrivals from tropical countries.  They will be used to hot country housing design which is big on ventilation and may not see the danger of housing designed for a cooler climate, and in their first years in Australia they will be ill equipped with traditional winter clothing.  In many cases, language will be a barrier to getting the " safe heating " message across.

It seems that we are heading into the worst of two worlds.  On the one hand, the price of electricity and gas - the traditional answer to warmth in winter - is elevated by cost pressures and seems likely to rise even higher, and at the same time budget measures are about to place restrictions on the cost of living by way of higher taxes.

Carbon Monoxide poisoning seems an inevitable outcome without a serious advertising campaign to get the message across !