How To Treat & Prevent Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 393 individuals died from accidental carbon monoxide poisoning in 2015. Carbon monoxide is a gas with no color, taste, or odor. It kills its victims stealthily by taking up the space in the hemoglobin in the blood that would normally be taken up by oxygen molecules. Patients initially feel dizzy and have a headache, nausea, vomiting, and start to have trouble breathing. As the concentration of the gas in their blood grows higher, their breathing difficulty increases, they may stumble and have an erratic heartbeat and visual disturbance. They may become cyanotic then lose consciousness. Eventually, if they are not treated in time, death occurs due to hypoxia, or lack of oxygen. Some individuals develop a cherry red skin color that is diagnostic of carbon monoxide poisoning, but this most often happens at a late stage or even after death. Children are more at risk from carbon monoxide poisoning than adults, and men are more at risk than women.