Falmouth students warned about carbon monoxide dangers (From Falmouth Packet)

Falmouth students warned about carbon monoxide dangers

10:20am Monday 8th February 2010

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Students living in digs in Falmouth and Penryn are being urged to make sure they aren’t putting their lives in danger by making sure their accommodation has life-saving audible carbon monoxide (CO) alarms fitted.

Every year 15 to 20 people die from carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning in the UK and 234 suffered major injuries last year alone. With the huge increase in student numbers on the Falmouth area over the past few years and with more on the way, the message is more important than ever.

So much so the Health and Safety Executive is launching a new campaign in the South West to make parents, landlords and students aware of the dangers of carbon monoxide.

Devon and Cornwall HSE Inspector, Helena Allum, said: “Carbon monoxide is a silent, odourless but deadly killer and the simple processing of fitting an audible alarm could save lives.

“We want students to make sure they’re safe when livings in digs by ensuring alarms are fitted.

“If you are living in rented accommodation your landlord has a duty to have any gas appliance that they own regularly serviced by a Gas Safe Register engineer and issue you with a copy of the gas safety certificate following the annual safety check. Contact HSE if your landlord does not, on request, provide you with a copy of the certificate.”

In addition to a hard-hitting poster and leaflet campaign on campus sites in Cornwall sites, the HSE are also working with university accommodation offices, landlord organisations and student unions to make sure students pick-up the CO message.

The six main symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning are headaches, dizziness, nausea, breathlessness, collapse and loss of consciousness and these could easily be confused with food poisoning, viral infections, flu or simple tiredness.

Landlords should provide an annual Gas Safety Record for all appliances and you should ensure your landlord uses a Gas Safe Registered engineer to do any gas work in your home.”

Richard Wilkins, of University College Falmouth’s accommodation office said: "We believe health and safety to be the most important factor when providing student accommodation. We not only work with landlords and our students to ensure that they are aware of the issues and responsibilities around gas safety and carbon monoxide but insist that landlords who provide student accommodation get their gas appliances regularly checked in line with the relevant legislation.

“We are keen to support the new HSE campaign and will be disseminating information about the dangers of CO to students and landlords. We believe that this is particularly important at this time of year when so many of our students are seeking accommodation for the next academic year.”

Samantha Finneran, welfare president of FXU, the students' union for University College Falmouth and the University of Exeter in Cornwall, said: “I would rather be woken up by a fire alarm than wake up coughing smoke trying to find my keys to get out of the house. Carbon Monoxide is worse. You might not even wake up. Don’t run the risk, get an alarm fitted - it might save your life, and the lives of your housemates too.”

Factshseet: The HSE advises: - Never use a gas appliance if you think it is not working properly. Danger signs include a flickering yellow or orange flame, sooting around your fire or boiler or the pilot light keeps going out.

- Do not be tempted to use the cooker to supplement your heating. Cookers are not designed for that purpose and several tragic accidents have arisen from such misuse.

As part of the campaign, British Gas are giving away 200 CO detectors free-of-charge to students through the HSE.

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