He felt dizzy and disoriented, DC motor suddenly sick to his stomach. Something was terribly wrong, but what? At least he had the presence of mind to wake up his groggy passengers and crew. Grappling with his cell phone he dialed 911. The local fire department responded immediately to his call. When they arrived within the half hour in a fire and rescue boat they found Jim, Judy and the sisters dizzy, confused and ill. They were rushed to the nearest hospital to be treated for CO (carbon monoxide) poisoning.
How does this happen? What causes what seems to be so innocuous to the senses to be so life threatening? You're being poisoned by CO, but you don't know it. You can't smell it, you can't see it, you can't taste it. It takes on the specter of the macabre as it slowly, progressively overcomes your being.
If you're awake, you could pass out without warning, but usually the process is a slow one. The first sign is usually a headache often with nausea, feeling much like the flu without the fever. As time goes on you'll feel drowsy for no apparent reason with accompanying lethargy, later breathless on exertion, with chest pain as the heart is starved for oxygen. Low cardiac output will leave you less capable of clear thinking interfering with your usual response to danger; escape. With continued exposure the outcomes are often convulsions, coma, led bulkhead brain damage and finally, death.
So what causes this lack of oxygen medically known as hypoxia? CO is generated by the normal operation of any fuel-burning appliance or engine aboard a boat, including and commonly generators. If poorly maintained and/or malfunctioning or if not vented properly you run the risk of being a victim.YouFind
You've probably heard of hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is a substance in the blood that carries oxygen from the lungs to every cell in the body. It's needed so we have energy for growth, repair, movement and nerve conduction, all fundamental functions of life itself. When CO is present, it replaces precious oxygen in our blood causing a slow, but sure suffocation and destruction of tissue; a strangulation of life processes in the most insidious way.
You don't need to be sleeping to be overcome by CO. In fact, there are more deaths in open air exposure when people are awake than in a confined space like a cabin, places like open cockpits or even swim platforms. You learn in safe boating courses about the so called "station wagon effect" where gasses can be trapped and funneled back into the boat caused by a reverse air flow around the transom. This heavy concentration of gas is further exacerbated by fiberglass swim platforms where exhaust fumes containing CO can be trapped in concentrated amounts only to flow into enclosed cockpits where it can accumulate to extreme toxic levels. Even a boat underway can pose problems at slow speeds, especially with a tail wind.
What can you do to be sure you're not being exposed to the deadly gas? Well, the obvious answer is to get a CO detector, right? That's what I did. But, I assumed they were all made the same and would work equally well if they met minimum safety standards as noted on the package, so I bought two of the least expensive ones I could find at a local hardware store and installed them on my boat; one in the cabin and one in the cockpit. The problem was, they kept sounding off at the slightest provocation; loud, 醫療用品 ear- piercing tones designed to wake you out of a deep REM sleep. I couldn't tolerate the excessive interruption and the attention they required, so I disarmed them to maintain sanity and keep my ears from ringing.