You’ve packed a toothbrush, your sunscreen and a swimsuit for your summer travel. Now, what about a carbon monoxide detector?
Kathryn Gillett, 44, from Wichita, said she bought a battery-powered carbon monoxide detector two years ago for a stay at an apartment in Buenos Aires. Now, she tosses the device in her bag when she travels.
“Why wouldn’t you travel with one?” asked Gillett, who said the device is about the size of two smartphones stacked together, weighs 10 ounces and cost her $20. “The cost is low, the convenience is high and, while the risk is low, the consequences are devastating.”
Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless, tasteless and toxic gas that’s produced when carbon burns, from gasoline, wood or propane, for example. Once inhaled, carbon monoxide bonds to blood cells, reducing the blood’s ability to carry oxygen through the body, said Lindell Weaver, the medical director of hyperbaric medicine at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah.
“If that’s high enough, the person will die,” he said.
Carbon monoxide is often referred to as the “silent killer” because it can kill someone without warning, especially while they’re asleep. In March, the 14-year-old son of former New York Yankee Brett Gardner died of carbon monoxide poisoning while he was asleep in Costa Rica, according to authorities.
The best way to mitigate the potential risk of carbon monoxide poisoning while traveling, or at home, is by placing a carbon monoxide detector near you when you sleep, experts said.
“I travel with one,” said Bryan Baskin, the vice chair of emergency medicine at Cleveland Clinic. “I’m an emergency physician. So, obviously, this is top-of-mind for me.”
In the United States, carbon monoxide alarms often follow the UL 2034 safety standard, requirements to ensure the devices will make noise when a certain amount of the noxious gas is in the air, Weaver said.
“They’re designed to go off in 10 to 15 minutes,” when the device detects carbon monoxide at 150 parts per million in the air, Weaver said. “The higher the level of exposure, the faster the alarm should go off.”
If a carbon monoxide alarm goes off, it’ll loop a four-beep pattern. Leave the area immediately and get outdoors into open air, experts said. Then, call 911, and firefighters can determine the source of the gas.
What’s the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning?
Hundreds of Americans die each year of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning, and thousands more develop long-term cognitive issues because of exposure to the gas, according to a 2016 report in the journal Preventive Medicine Reports.
“The chances of being poisoned are really low, but they’re not zero,” Weaver said
In the peer-reviewed study, Neil Hampson, now an emeritus physician at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, estimates accidental carbon monoxide poisoning (exposures not associated with fires) cost the U.S. more than $1.3 billion annually in medical expenses and lost earnings.
In hotels, motels and resorts in the U.S., 905 people were poisoned and 22 people died in 115 incidents of carbon monoxide poisoning between 2005 and 2018, according to a separate 2019 study, on which Hampson and Weaver were co-authors. The cases happened in all types of lodging, from national chains to luxury hotels and resorts, across 41 states, the researchers wrote.
Earlier this month, Democratic U.S. Reps. Angie Craig (Minnesota) and Mike Levin (California) reintroduced a bill to require carbon monoxide detectors in hotel and motel rooms in the U.S.
Ralph Posner, a spokesman for the American Hotel & Lodging Association, said in a statement that AHLA “members are required to comply with all applicable local and state codes with respect to carbon monoxide detection.” He also wrote that the association “encourages our members to follow industry-wide best practices, including regular inspection and maintenance of fuel-burning appliances, proper installation of carbon monoxide detectors in applicable areas, and ongoing staff training on monitoring and emergency response procedures.”
Kris Hauschildt’s parents died of carbon monoxide poisoning at a hotel in North Carolina in 2013. Hauschildt is a co-author of the 2019 paper and founder of the Jenkins Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to preventing carbon monoxide poisoning,
“My mom worked for a gas company for 30 years. Certainly, she was well-versed in the dangers of carbon monoxide. My parents had alarms in their home,” Hauschildt said. But “they had no idea this was an issue,” she said.
Symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning are often described as cold- or flu-like, and include headaches, dizziness, nausea and brain fog, Baskin said. Over time, a person may start to have difficulty walking and balancing. And, eventually, someone can enter a “coma-like state.”
“As the patient gets confused, sleepier, dizzy, light-headed, they go to sleep,” Baskin said. “And then they don’t wake up.”
Young children, pregnant people and older people are a higher risk of harm from carbon monoxide exposure, experts said. Some people who survive don’t fully recover and have permanent brain damage, resulting in lifelong disability, Weaver said.
Lyrysa Smith, 65, is the full-time caretaker of her 67-year-old sister, Molly Weber.
Weber suffered a severe brain injury from carbon monoxide poisoning 30 years ago in “a family-owned ski lodge, each room with its own heater,” on a ski trip with her husband, Smith said.
“She was in coma for weeks,” Smith, of Boulder, Colorado, said. “And, I do not say she recovered. We never got my sister back. We have someone who looks a little like her – is a completely different personality – and I say that my sister was rehabilitated. But not recovered. I can’t use that word for her.”
“If they had a [carbon monoxide] detector, our lives would be completely different today,” she said. Weber’s husband died of the carbon monoxide poisoning.
What can I do to mitigate my risk?
Buy a carbon monoxide detector that can rely on battery power, in case the electricity goes out, experts said. Place the device where you sleep at night, even in an RV or a camping tent.
Smith said she always travels with this device, and the simple alarm can save lives. “You don’t need anything fancy,” Smith said. She recommends three alarms from First Alert and Kidde. All three are less than $30 each.
Never operate a generator or other fuel-burning equipment and engines in a closed room, garage or basement, experts said, and don’t leave a car running in a garage. The carbon monoxide in the exhaust will collect in the air. And place generators far away from the house’s windows, doors and vents.
Hire a certified technician to inspect your furnace or heating system once a year, Weaver said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also recommends homeowners have their chimney cleaned once a year.
Ask the hotel or the owner of a rental property if they have carbon monoxide alarms. When people ask, they help to build the expectation that these devices should be installed, experts said. And, when in doubt, travel with your own, Hauschildt said.
A spokesperson for Airbnb said in a statement that “safety issues are very rare.” Airbnb takes “carbon monoxide safety seriously” and “has given away over 280,000 free combined smoke and CO detectors to our hosts. Airbnb guests can filter for listings that advertise having a CO detector, and if one isn’t listed, we notify and encourage guests to bring their own,” the spokesperson wrote.
A decade ago, Smith published a book, “A Normal Life,” about the ways in which “this single incident” of her sister’s carbon monoxide poisoning upended her family’s life, and still affects her every day.
“My life is forever changed,” Smith said. “A brain injury isn’t for one person only. It takes down the whole family.”