León (EFE) León (1-1-2) provided to EFE by the Ministry of Health.
The cases of recent years represent a third of those reported in 2013, when 314 citizens were treated in the Community as a whole for inhaling a gas that kills without prior notice.
That year, together with 2015 (250), 2016 (202) and 2017 (193), it registered the highest number of people affected by a toxic, odorless and colorless gas produced by the incomplete combustion of hydrocarbons.
Quiet death
Carbon monoxide poisoning, which is produced by breathing it, can cause clinical manifestations that range from non-specific symptoms (such as headaches) to death, as the body inadvertently runs out of oxygen.
Hemoglobin is the molecule contained in red blood cells that transports it from the lungs to the tissues.
The high toxicity is due to the fact that it has an affinity for it 210 times greater than oxygen, and although the concentration in the air is very low, a large number of hemoglobin molecules capture carbon monoxide instead of oxygen.
When 40 percent are occupied by monoxide (CO), and despite the fact that the remaining 60 percent continues to carry oxygen, the person becomes dazed and unable to think clearly.
worse in winter
The team of professionals from the network of Mobile Emergency Units (UMEs) of Castilla y León sees their actions increase in the colder months due to the domestic use of ovens, gas stoves, heaters, charcoal braziers and wood-burning fireplaces in situations not working optimally or used in poorly ventilated spaces.
In this sense, a total of 53 people from Valladolid suffered carbon monoxide poisoning in 2022 (241 in a decade). They have been joined by 49 from Salamanca (306 since 2013), 47 from Zamora (up to 212), 43 from Leon (370 in ten years), 42 from Palencia (164), 34 from Avila (136), 19 from Burgos (166), 16 from Segovia ( 136) and 11 from Sorianos (47).
Carbon monoxide displaces oxygen and is distributed homogeneously as it is as dense as air and, in any case, if the same symptoms (headache, dizziness, weakness, nausea, vomiting, confusion and drowsiness) are repeated in the rest of family members, the alarms must go off before falling unconscious.
recommendations
The first thing to do is turn off the boiler or heat source, ventilate the space and call 1-1-2.
The fatal exposure time depends on the concentration of carbon monoxide in the air and if the gas reaches the level of 400 parts per million, life is in danger after three hours; at a concentration of 1,600 parts per million (ie 0.16 percent), death usually occurs within an hour, while a level of one percent is deadly in just a couple of minutes.
The fact that it has neither odor nor color makes it very difficult to detect in the environment and it is also not irritating, which accentuates its danger, hence the nicknames ‘silent gas’ and ‘sweet death’.
In this sense, it is advisable to install CO alarms or detectors in certain parts of the house to identify its presence immediately.
Statistics
Every year in Spain between 5,000 and 10,000 people suffer from carbon monoxide poisoning, which causes an average of 125 deaths, according to the Spanish Society of Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery (Separ), which indicates that prolonged exposure, even to Low levels of this gas can have adverse effects, especially cardiovascular and neurological.
However, according to Separ, despite the damage that this type of poisoning can cause, it is estimated that there is a high percentage of underdiagnosis, since low but repeated concentrations of this gas go unnoticed and carboxyhemoglobin levels increase until they produce a chronic poisoning. EFE