Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

[John McKenna]

Do you test for carbon monoxide poisoning?

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/sto...ate=12/12/2006

TROY -- City officials will open code enforcement records for review this morning on 13-year-old inspections of furnaces installed in homes on Pattison Way.

This comes after Friday's discovery that Hoan Son, 61, had died in his bed of carbon monoxide poisoning in his Pattison Way home. His wife, Lan Son, 55, is in very critical condition at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx after firefighters found overwhelmingly high concentrations of the odorless gas.
An investigation showed the furnace, first inspected by city code enforcement officials when the development was build more than a dozen years ago, was erroneously wired.


It was later discovered that similar furnaces in other homes in the development also were wired incorrectly.


According to a local furnace expert, the problem with the unit was that safety switch on the direct vent kit was wired incorrectly. The vent consists of an electric fan that expels dangerous combustion gases through to an outside vent. As a result, if the fan unit failed, the safety switch would not shut off the burner, allowing the deadly gas to fill the home.