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Vincent Pica
Chief of Staff, First District, Southern Region (D1SR)
United States Coast Guard Auxiliary
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Silent and Odorless – a Killer!
Most of us have heard of a tragic story of some poor soul giving it all up by ending their life in the garage. Close the door, start the car and wait for a precious few moments. For many of us, that is all the thinking we ever do about carbon monoxide poisoning. Of all the dangers that the mariner confronts, carbon monoxide poisoning is perhaps the most dangerous since it is odorless, colorless and tasteless. Unarmed, you will never see it coming.
What Creates Carbon Monoxide?
Burning hydrocarbons, plain and simple. Diesel, gasoline, propane – all are hydrocarbons and CO is a natural by-product of burning them. You cannot tune your engine not to create CO. You can create CO-safe environments around and in your boat but you cannot defy the laws of chemistry.
Your engine doesn’t even have to be the one that is on. Your neighbor at the dock has his generator on to power the A/C and TV – and his exhaust is wafting into your cabin. And the smell of it isn’t what is killing you. What you smell is unburned hydrocarbons. What you can’t smell is CO… Also, it could be your engine but you think that you are immune because you haven’t enclosed your cockpit. You have only enclosed the windshield and side panel areas, leaving the aft wide open… well, called the “station wagon effect”, an area that is enclosed on 3 sides creates a vacuum behind it as it pushes ahead – and it is sucking CO into the “cup” it has created. You are in that cup…
What is it and how do you know you are succumbing to it?
Carbon monoxide (CO) kills you by attaching itself to your blood cells in a way that keeps your blood from picking up fresh oxygen as it passes through your lungs. You essentially suffocate slowly while surrounded by air. Little by little, the CO hitches a ride on your blood cells until there are no seats left on the life-sustaining bus (your blood) for the oxygen to sit. As it happens, you start to get headaches, muscle aches, excessive fatigue and nausea. As I tell my seamanship students, “If you are starting to feel like you are coming down with the flu, but you don’t have the sniffles, get out of there! You are succumbing to CO poisoning!”
What do you do now!
Say you enter your cruiser, and you find a crew man lying unconscious on the sole of the cabin. The manual actually says that you are first to try to isolate the source of the fumes, extinguish them and proceed to get your mate to fresh air (to start the cleansing cycle of kicking the CO’s out of their seats and replacing them with O’s!)
Here is where I am coming from. This strategy could cause two people to die from CO poisoning, not one. IF you know that the only source of CO poisoning is YOUR engine, and you can kill it in a virtual flash, do it – or get out of there immediately and run for help! If you have to play Inspector Clouseau looking for clues, you are playing with your life. Remember, it could be your slip-mate’s engine that is polluting your air. Also, the cabin has built up some degree of CO concentration. It may be a deadly amount and you don’t have a chemistry kit in your pocket. You are playing with your life.
You certainly can [1] grab a lungful of fresh air from outside, hold your breath and [2] try to drag the person out of the cabin. If you can’t, [3] drop them and run for help. If you can get them out, but they are not breathing, give them artificial respiration (sometimes called CPR) and scream for help between breaths!
How to prevent it?
One, create fresh air paths that keep the station wagon effect from overtaking you from behind. Don’t form that cup – crack a window somewhere and create a jet-stream through your boat. Two, put carbon monoxide detectors in ALL enclosed spaces, especially sleeping quarters. These devices can be battery-operated and are readily available. $29.95 at places like Home Depot, Wal-Mart, the internet, etc… There are models that can be tied directly into your battery system like a bilge pump – never fails unless the battery itself is dead.
I’ve heard these devices. They can wake the dead. Almost. Be aware. Be safe. Always prepared – semper paratus…!
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BTW, if you are interested in being part of USCG Forces, email me at JoinUSCGAux@aol.com or go direct to the D1SR Human Resources department, who are in charge of new members matters, at DSO-HR and we will help you “get in this thing…”
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