The severe storms earlier this week could have posed a much more serious risk to residents — carbon monoxide poisoning — from alternate power sources like generators used during outages.
“When you leave generators in homes and don’t use them carefully, it produces carbon monoxide poisoning within the house,” said James McCurtis, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Community Health.
Two Genesee County residents died Monday due to running a generator in the basement, and about up to 20 Michigan residents die each year due to carbon monoxide poisoning, McCurtis said.
With the power outages, many people were relying on generators or other power sources, but these run on fuel that emits carbon monoxide, a tasteless, odorless gas that people cannot detect with their senses.
“There is no way you would know that you’re being poisoned by it — it’s kind of like a silent killer,” McCurtis said.
Carbon monoxide poisoning does produce symptoms including nausea, dizziness, headache, vomiting and confusion, which can occur almost immediately, he said.
“Hopefully people have a detector, otherwise there’s no way for them to know (carbon monoxide is there), except for when they get sick,” said Bob Pratt, East Lansing fire marshal. “There’s no way that you can sense that there’s a problem.”
The East Lansing area has not had any fatalities due to carbon monoxide poisoning in at least 20 years, he said.
While carbon monoxide can cause serious health problems, or even death, several students said they did not have a detector, or did not know if they had one.
“I’m aware of (the threat), but I’ve never had an incident that would make me worry about it,” said pre-law senior Brian Thomas.
Psychology sophomore Ashley Youngblood said that she is not sure if she has a detector, as she doesn’t really think about carbon monoxide poisoning.
However, East Lansing resident Tony Rizk said that he owns a carbon monoxide detector and thinks having one is important.
“It’s recommended, and I’d rather be safer and protect myself,” he said.
Carbon monoxide detectors can be purchased at most hardware stores and are typically between $20 and $60. Most are either battery-operated, or can be plugged into a socket.
Fires are another hazard that can come from power outages.
If people are using hardwired smoke detectors without a battery backup, when the power goes out, they will no longer function, Pratt said.
“It’s an especially dangerous time, because people are prone to using candles,” he said.
“At the same time we’re increasing the risk (for fires), we’re decreasing protection, which is a bad combination.”
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