Written by Dr. Aisha Harris
Featured photo: Dr. Aisha Harris, courtesy of Dr. Harris
It’s that time of year where it starts to get cold and we begin to put on layers and wear our winter coats and gloves. We turn on the furnaces in our home and try and find that ideal temperature to keep us warm – but also not crank up our energy bill too much.
It is cold outside and inside until spring comes back. So, let’s focus on winter.
During the winter, it is important to stay warm. Preventing cold-related problems like hypothermia and frostbite is a regular goal as the days get colder and colder. So how do we stay warm inside of our home? There are many ways people stay warm, but the main way is by using the furnace to heat the home.
Yes, people wear more clothes inside, have blankets, use space heaters, and maybe even start a fire in their place, but furnaces are the main way to keep a home warm.
As much as we want to stay warm in the winter, we want to safely stay warm through a properly functioning furnace.
Carbon monoxide is an odorless and colorless gas. Carbon monoxide poisoning is caused by breathing in carbon monoxide and the gas displacing oxygen in your blood. This causes symptoms like headaches, dizziness, confusion, shortness of breath, nausea, chest pain, vomiting and weakness.
Each year more than 400 people die from carbon monoxide poisoning and over 100,000 are seen in the emergency room because of poisoning concerns.
So, let’s talk about furnace safety. Furnaces help heat the entire home, and depending on the size of your home, you may need a bigger or stronger furnace to reach all of the rooms and spaces. But furnaces do have a risk of malfunctioning or breaking down just like other machinery in our home. There are a lot of signs of furnaces not working properly from no sound, to loud sounds, to even smells.
Most commonly, people just frankly feel very cold when they should be feeling warmth from the furnace creating heat.
One important risk of a furnace not working correctly is that there could be a gas leak. Gas leaks in furnaces can increase a person’s exposure to carbon monoxide, which can cause a variety of symptoms and even death.
Carbon monoxide poisoning can make you sick in a few minutes if the air is highly saturated in carbon monoxide. At high concentration, carbon monoxide can lead to unconsciousness and death within a couple hours.
It is important to get any furnace concerns or malfunctions checked out sooner, rather than later to prevent medical problems and property damage. Some people even opt for a regular maintenance check of their furnace, especially if it is old. Having a carbon monoxide detector in your home is another way to detect abnormal levels of carbon monoxide and evaluate the concern quickly.
Carbon monoxide exposures and deaths are preventable if we take the right steps to decrease our risk of carbon monoxide poisoning!
Dr. Aisha Harris, MD, is a Flint native and board-certified family medicine doctor at Harris Family Health in Flint, Michigan. Harris Family Health is a membership-based clinic that provides personalized and full primary care to adults and children. Learn more about Harris Family Health by visiting www.harrisfamilyhealth.com.
Feel free to submit health questions to Dr. Harris via theflintcouriernews@gmail.com.
