Gas Safety Week 2017 – Keeping Our Nation Safe

Gas Safety Week 2017 – Get Your Gas Appliances Checked by a Gas Safe Registered Engineer.

Gas Safety Week 2017 starts today and is a campaign I’m supporting. I experienced Carbon Monoxide (CO) poisoning over several months, and blogged about it at the time. It was a scary time especially as I didn’t know what was wrong and was putting it down to a nasty virus.

So. How could we let it happen?

Well, we didn’t ‘let’ it happen. There were things we didn’t think about, things we should have known. We know now, and fortunately, came out of it.

Things to be aware of:

• Put CO alarms in every room that has a gas/fossil fuelled appliance and position in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. CO alarms should meet the standard EN 50291.

Tip 5 - Test your CO alarm Gas Safety Week 2017

• Recognise the symptoms of CO poisoning. Every morning I felt like I was hungover. I’d stagger up the road to catch my train for my daily commute, I felt so giddy. While the room didn’t spin, I didn’t feel like I was standing up straight or walking in a straight line. I thought I maybe had an ear infection. I didn’t go to the doctor about it because I was busy.

Tip 6 - Setup a reminder - Gas Safety Week 2017

• Know when your Gas Safety Check is due. Use Stay Gas Safe to help you remember.

Our gas safety check happened on the 2nd April 2016. By then we had been suffering from CO poisoning for almost three months. I still can’t get my head around why I never realised that my family were suffering from this.

This year, Gas Safety Week aims to raise awareness to families on recognising the signs and symptoms of CO poisoning in their family members, especially young children after research has revealed that:

  • A third (32%) of people would not recognise CO poisoning, misdiagnosing symptoms for other illnesses
  • If suffering from CO poisoning, most people know to open the windows (68%), leave the house to get fresh air (74%), and contact a Gas Safe registered engineer to come and see if there’s a problem (42%)
  • One in 10 (9%) don’t know CO poisoning symptoms at all. These symptoms which include headaches, nausea, breathlessness, collapse, dizziness and loss of consciousness. They are often misdiagnosed as:
  • Concussion (37%)
  • Meningitis (36%)
  • A panic attack (27%)
  • A stroke (22%)
  • Flu (19%)

Gas Safety Week 2017 poster
Gas Safe Register is providing three tips to help keep families gas safe at home:

    1. Check appliances annually – an annual gas safety check reminder service can be found at www.StayGasSafe.co.uk. Currently only 54% people get annual gas checks.
    2. Know the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning – although carbon monoxide (CO) has no smell, taste or colour, symptoms of poisoning include: headaches; dizziness; nausea; breathlessness; collapse and loss of consciousness – all of which can be mistaken for something else.
    3. Only employ a qualified Gas Safe registered engineer – you can find a local registered engineer to carry out gas work in your home by calling Gas Safe Register on 0800 408 5500 or by visiting www.GasSafeRegister.co.uk

Gas Safety Week 2017 is taking place from 18 September.
Search #GSW17 on social media for more top tips on how to stay gas safe. To find out about dangers in your area visit www.StayGasSafe.co.uk  and to find a Gas Safe registered engineer call 0800 408 5500 or visit www.GasSafeRegister.co.uk

We went to the ArcelorMittal Orbit on the day we found out, so we’ve decided to add a giveaway element to this post, with a very simple question.
Please see the Rafflecopter widget below.
The prize is a £100 Days Out voucher from BuyaGift.co.uk, and you can choose where to go. I will forward the winner to the PR company who are buying the voucher. This giveaway finishes on Sunday 25th September.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I received a fee for my time for this post for Gas Safety Week 2017.

Gas Safety Week 2017 banner

62 Comments

  1. I’m ashamed to say I don’t have any but having read your experience I will most definitely be getting some!

    Reply

  2. When I moved into my current property (rented) the thing that disturbed me about living 1) in the property and 2) In a flat was there were no co2 monitors. I will now be asking the landlord to provide these.

    Reply

  3. We’ve just got one, where the log burner is. but will definitely get another for the boiler.

    Reply

  4. I have one , I won’t buy more for my flat but will inspect to see if there are many in the hallways of the flats

    Reply

  5. I have 1 but it’s only a small flat. I’d consider another, but I will definitely be checking the battery more regularly

    Reply

  6. We have 3 – 1 upstairs in our child’s bedroom and one in the lounge where wood burner is and one in the kitchen

    Reply

  7. We’ve only had the one but after reading your blog post I’m definitely going to invest in at least a ‘back-up.’ It’s totally common sense if the the other one fails? I feel a little stupid for not thinking about it before. x

    Reply

  8. We have 2, one in the lounge and kitchen. I have just bought one for my elderly parents.

    Reply

  9. We have one, but we don’t have any gas appliances in the house – even our boiler is in an outside cupboard.

    Reply

  10. one, in the kitchen, where the boiler is. well, if my flat would be bigger, I would consider another one

    Reply

  11. I just have one in the kitchen. I wouldn’t buy more at the moment because our house is really small, but when we move to a bigger house next year I will definitely have more of them.

    Reply

  12. We have one. Having lost the daughter of a very close friend this way, I was already very aware of the issue.

    Reply

  13. We have one, was one of the first things I bought for our new home. very important topic!

    Reply

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