‘Flu-like symptoms may be carbon monoxide poisoning

It’s that time of the year again. Autumn is when we turn on the furnace to keep us warm for the cold days and freezing nights. But, last year, I noticed that the ventilation for our gas water heater had come apart during the winter. I put it back together, hoping that had fixed the problem. It hadn’t.

The vent from the water tank is right up against the furnace, and next to the airflow vent from said furnace. In other words, jammed in between them. When we turned the heating on last week, I got the impression that I should check the water tank vent again.

It’s a good thing that I did, because it had come apart again. So I called our water heater service company and got a repairman to visit us today. He altered the vent and secured it so that it would stay together permanently. And then we had a discussion about how CO is a ‘silent killer’. Our CO alarms were obviously not doing their job.

Now it makes sense:

We’ve lived in this house for four winters, so far. Susan has had a very bad time of it, health-wise, each year, during those winter months. We thought it was due to the fact that she was essentially housebound, unable to do any gardening or yard work. But it might have actually been because we were slowly being poisoned.

That won’t happen now that this maintenance has been done.

So, the lesson is this: don’t take for granted that you are safe from this ‘silent killer’; get your flue checked to make sure that you don’t get flu-like symptoms.

Your life might depend on it.