What is Carbon Monoxide?

Carbon Monoxide (AKA CO) is a very nasty gas that can make you very poorly if you breathe too much of it in.

The big problem with CO is that you can’t see it, hear it, smell it, taste it and you can’t touch it.

This is why you need to know how to stay safe from it, that way you can keep you and your family safe from CO.

Where does CO come from?

CO comes from fire that is burning with an orange flame.

The orange flame means that it isn’t burning properly which means that it is giving out CO.

If the flame is burning blue, then it is burning properly and no CO is being given off.

You can see the difference between a blue and orange flame here…

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Just remember:

Blue flame = Good

Orange flame = bad

But my BBQ has an orange flame and that’s not dangerous?

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That’s because orange flames aren’t dangerous when they’re outside.

It’s because the CO mixes with all the other gases in the air outside and it floats away easily.

The problem is when you have an orange flame inside, the CO can build up in the room and make you very ill as you’ll be breathing it in.

The main flames in your house would be the flame on the cooker and the flame inside the boiler. If either of these look orange then you need to get a gas safe engineer to come and check it for you.

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How do I stay safe from CO?

The best way is to make sure you have a CO alarm.

These are amazing little devices that will play a loud alarm sound when there is CO about.

They look a lot like a fire alarm.

Learn more about CO fro Safety Seymour here…

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