Question regarding Cars and carbon monoxide poisoning?
Tonight my son was looking for his CD in my car that just so happened to be parked in my attached garage. In order for the CD Eject button to work, you’ll to turn the ignition but not necessarily start the engine. He didn’t turn it off when he discovered the CD wasn’t in there and we later found out that he started the engine. Couple of minutes later, he and his friend left for roller skating using another car (another parent driving).
My car was running in a closed garage (attached to the house) for 2 hours before my husband discovered it. Is my family in danger of carbon monoxide poisoning? I’m willing to leave the garage door open all night but what else needs to be done to keep us safe. Serious answers only please.
research,
How do you know this? Are you in the medical field or do you have some links where you learned that info?
Leaving the garage door open all night wouldn’t be necessary. 15 minutes should be sufficient. However, I would open the windows in you house to air it out. You need to get fresh air into your house. 30 minutes of this should be adequate. Have some fans running while your windows are open to help circulate the air.
CO is not something to mess around with. Good for you that you recognized a hazard.
EDIT…
Yes, I am in the medical field (I am a surgical technologist and we deal with air exchanges in the operating room with the potentially hazardous "surgical plume" from the cautery devices.) We also have an attached garage. We also have a vent free natural gas heater in our basement along with CO detectors in the basement, 1st floor and 2nd floor of our house. I did a lot of research on CO poisioning with vent free heaters before we actually purchased one that replaced our vented natural gas heater. When we start our cars with the garage door closed, the CO detector signals (low levels)…so we ALWAYS have the door open BEFORE starting our cars/ lawnmower/ snowblower. There are instructions on the CO detectors that tell you what to do. The main thing is to get fresh air into the house. It doesn’t take that long to do that if you open up your windows and run some fans to help it circulate. Garage doors are big openings compared to windows, and fresh air rushes in, thus lowering the concentration of CO at a faster rate, plus if you keep the door to the house from the garage with the garage door open, you will have more air exchanges per hour due to the large volume of fresh air that is accessible.
I will not say that I am an expert, nor should my advice take the place of one. I am just stating what I have learned both in college, on the job, and my own research with CO poisioning.
I would open some windows and vent your house. I think you would be fine with opening the garage door and then opening up a draft through your house for a little while. Also run a bathroom vent fan and your stove top fan. This would be sufficient if you are uneasy.
I would call my local fire department and explain the situation. They are such nice people and they would be glad to answer your questions. Good Luck. Better Be Safe than Sorry!!
Ventilation is the key. You can’t smell or taste carbon monoxide. Some of the symptoms of poisoning are headaches and dizziness. If you and your family start feeling like this, then you might want to stay in a hotel for the night, just to be on the safe side.