Carbon monoxide advice protects university freshers

Sprue Safety Products teamed up with the University of Portsmouth to provide information, advice and give away carbon monoxide alarms as part of a safety awareness clinic run during Freshers’ Week.

More than 16,000 students visited the two-day Freshers’ Fayre, where they received essential information on how to stay CO safe, including having working carbon monoxide alarms in the right locations.

Union President, Cat Redding said: “This was a great opportunity to remind students to check with landlords that all heating and cooking appliances in their accommodation have been safety checked and to warn them of the danger signs and symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning to look out for.

“We also teamed up with Sprue Safety Products to give away 20 FireAngel carbon monoxide alarms in a free tombola, which attracted lots of students. This gave us the chance to talk to them about the risks of carbon monoxide. Some were really clued up about the dangers, but others didn't even know what it was. We will definitely be running this campaign over the cold winter months, as it really highlighted a need for further awareness.”

Around 40 people die in the UK each year as a result of CO poisoning and 4,000 people attend Accident and Emergency Departments with symptoms, but it is estimated that one third of a million people suffer from exposure to this poisonous gas in their homes every year unknowingly.

Students and other people living in rented properties can be at greater risk, as cooking and heating appliances are often older or misused. By law, landlords must ensure all appliances are safety checked and they are required to give tenants a copy of their gas safety record to show that the gas appliances in their property are safe to use.

Badly fitted, poorly serviced or faulty gas appliances can put occupiers at risk from gas leaks, fires, explosions and carbon monoxide poisoning.

The danger is - with no taste or smell - CO is undetectable to the human senses and because symptoms are often mistaken for other ailments such as hangovers or flu, its presence can go unnoticed until it’s too late. Even low levels over a few hours can be as lethal as high levels over a short amount of time, causing lasting damage to your health.

The only way to detect its presence is with an audible carbon monoxide alarm. As a smoke alarm alerts you to fire, a properly placed CO alarm detects the lowest levels early, warning you before the gas becomes life threatening so action can be taken to stay safe.

The FireAngel CO-9XT is ideal for providing early warning of the presence of carbon monoxide. Based on the most advanced electrochemical sensors available for the domestic market and certified to the European Standard BS EN 50291-1: 2010, this battery-operated alarm is easy to install with a fast-fix single pin bracket, simple to set up and features a tamper-proof internal power pack that has a guaranteed seven-year life.

It features a large, easy-to-use test button with three LEDs showing power, fault and alarm, so that an immediate visual check can be made to identify if a CO leak has occurred. For management purposes, the CO-9XT also has a diagnostic capability that, in the event of the alarm going off, enables a report to be downloaded onto a PC giving the time, date and level of CO in the property at the time the alarm was triggered.