America’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has studied deaths caused by carbon monoxide poisoning. It found that the average number of carbon monoxide deaths in the United States was greatest in the month of January.

The CDC also found that carbon monoxide kills more than four hundred Americans each year. And, it said, more than twenty thousand people are taken to hospital emergency rooms for treatment of health problems linked to the gas. Four thousand of them had to stay in the hospital to be treated.

(MUSIC)

FAITH LAPIDUS: Carbon monoxide is called the silent killer because people do not know it is in the air. The gas has no color. It has no taste. It has no smell. It does not cause burning eyes. And it does not cause people to cough. But it is very deadly. It steals the body’s ability to use oxygen.

Carbon monoxide decreases the ability of the blood to carry oxygen to body tissues. It does this by linking with the blood. When the gas links with the blood, the blood is no longer able to carry oxygen to the tissues that need it. Damage to the body can begin very quickly from large amounts of carbon monoxide. How quickly this happens depends on the length of time a person is breathing the gas and the amount of the gas he or she breathes in. Another consideration is how much alcohol the person might have to drink.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Carbon monoxide poisoning has warning signs. But people have to be awake to recognize them. Small amounts of the gas will cause a person’s head to hurt. He or she may begin to feel tired. The person may feel sick. The room may appear to be turning around. The person may have trouble thinking clearly.