Carbon monoxide poisoning sends 34 to hospital

A family gathering in Ogden turned scary when 34 people were sent to local hospitals for carbon monoxide poisoning. All were treated and later released, but it's a strong reminder, health experts say, that carbon monoxide can seriously injure or kill.

And while CO poisoning can occur any time, the numbers seem to go up in winter.

Ogden firefighters were called to a house at 182 W. 425 South about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday for a person experiencing flu-like symptoms, said Deputy Chief Chad Tucker. A total of 49 people were at the house celebrating the holidays.

A propane grill had been placed in the garage to cook food and heat the garage, Tucker said. Firefighters measured the carbon monoxide in the garage and found potentially lethal levels, registering nearly 12 times more than what is considered "normal." Crews from South Ogden, Roy, North View Fire Agency and Ogden responded to the incident.

Dr. Eugene Worth, a hyperbaric medicine physician at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center, says there's been a near-epidemic of carbon monoxide poisonings since late October in the Salt Lake and Utah valleys. He doesn't know how many patients are sent from emergency rooms without being referred to hyperbaric treatment, but says he and his colleagues have seen a big increase in carbon monoxide poisonings, including several separate incidents involving construction workers, since the weather turned cold.

In those cases, workers built barriers around their work areas to close out the cold, then used gas-powered generators, diesel-powered forklifts or kerosene heaters inside, allowing the CO to build to a toxic level.

In the Ogden incident, many of the guests suffered headaches and flu-like symptoms. CO poisoning symptoms can range from those mild indicators up to very serious ones, including unconsciousness. And it takes a surprisingly long time to clear carbon monoxide from the blood, Worth said.

If you remove yourself from the source of the CO and breathe fresh air, it still takes five hours for half the CO to leave your system. To get 97.5 percent out takes "five half-lives," he says, or about 25 hours. If you are treated in the emergency room with a high-flow oxygen mask, the half life is about 80 minutes, so it still takes more than seven hours to clear out the majority of the poison. Breathing 100 percent oxygen in a hyperbaric chamber, the half-life drops to 23 minutes and nearly all of the poison is gone in 2 1/2 hours. Even then, though, damage may linger.