You may have heard of carbon monoxide, but do you know about it and the dangers that it poses? Carbon monoxide can get into your home without you realizing it, but you can follow preventative measures to keep yourself and your family safe. Spend some time learning about carbon monoxide so that you can avoid its dangers.

What is Carbon Monoxide?

Carbon monoxide is a dangerous mixture of carbon and oxygen which becomes a poisonous gas. To add to this, people cannot detect carbon monoxide if it gets in the air. You can't smell or see it. This makes the chemical invisible to the senses, making it easy for you to breathe it in without realizing it.

The Dangers of Carbon Monoxide

Since you can't identify carbon monoxide on your own, this makes it a major danger to people. If it enters your lungs, your body will begin to feel the effects of carbon monoxide. If you don't get away from it, then it could cause damage to your body and even lead to death.

To add to this, many people underestimate the importance of alarms going off. They first assume that the alarm broke, so they attempt to fix the carbon monoxide detector instead of getting out of their house. Since people forget to consider the worst-case scenario, they could face unnecessary extended exposure to carbon monoxide.

Symptoms

Carbon monoxide causes people to feel sick, nauseous and dizzy. This happens as you have continued exposure to the deadly gas. Some people may think that they should immediately go to bed to try and sleep it off, but if it is carbon monoxide, you could face serious dangers.

However, these symptoms could occur for other reasons. If you feel healthy and suddenly have these symptoms, see if anyone else in your home faces the same symptoms. If you live alone, play it safe and contact someone to look into it. These feelings of sickness, nausea, and dizziness should stand out as warnings to you that something may be wrong.

Where Carbon Monoxide Comes From

While carbon monoxide does exist and get into homes, you may wonder where does carbon monoxide come from. Carbon monoxide most commonly comes from gas and heat sources such as gas stoves, fireplaces, and propane. Since most homes have these appliances, you need to be mindful of a potential carbon monoxide leak.

Since they come from these sources, it's important that you regularly check your appliances to ensure that they function correctly. Also, if you have a gas stove, check that it wasn't left slightly on. As you check them, you can make sure that they function properly and minimize the risk.

Carbon Monoxide DetectorsCarbon monoxide detectors have become a common item in homes to keep people safe. Make sure that you know the locations of your carbon monoxide detectors. This will help you to locate any carbon monoxide if the alarms go off. Make sure to keep some of them in your bedrooms and the same rooms as your appliances.

While carbon monoxide may not originate in your bedroom, keep in mind that the detectors exist to warn you of leaks that may occur. Leaving them in your bedrooms will let you know if carbon monoxide filled the house during the evening. Check your carbon monoxide detectors regularly and replace the batteries as needed.

What to Do

If a carbon monoxide detector goes off in your home, first check the appliances and room where it went off. See if a leak occurred and if you can easily fix it. If not, open the windows in your home to vent the gas out, walk outside where there's open-air and get in contact with a technician to help.

It's important that you don't ignore an alarm and make sure to see what caused it to activate.

Final Comments

Carbon monoxide may scare some people, but you can avoid it and know what to do if it gets into your home. As long as you're mindful of your appliances and check on your detectors, you can avoid any carbon monoxide dangers.