Ensure proper ventilation near home appliances that run on gas or fuel, a hospital consultant has warned following the death of 19-year-old Ramiro Mallia from carbon monoxide poisoning on Tuesday.
Contacted by Times of Malta, Stephen Muscat, who has been treating patients suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning for 35 years, said it is often lack of oxygen, and not a leak, that kills people.
“The carbon monoxide that is produced by even a brand-new heater that works perfectly but which is placed in a small, closed room could prove fatal within minutes,” he said.
The latest incident is not solitary. In 2018, a ship captain and his partner were discovered dead in a Gozo boathouse following a similar carbon monoxide poisoning from a gas oven.
Anything that burns a carbon fuel, such as petrol, diesel, gas and even wood or coal, needs proper ventilation
The year before, a man died and another was hospitalised after suspected carbon monoxide poisoning at an Msida residence. And, in 2014, around 14 people suffered poisoning during a wedding reception when a BBQ was moved indoors.
Muscat, who treats the most severe cases at Mater Dei’s Hyperbaric Unit, explained that carbon monoxide poisoning is often misreported as a gas leak. Over the years he has seen patients thought to be suffering from a stroke or heart attack, only to find they had suffered carbon monoxide poisoning.
“Anything that burns a carbon fuel, such as petrol, diesel, gas and even wood or coal, needs proper ventilation. Otherwise, within minutes, your body starts being starved of oxygen which is replaced by carbon monoxide.
“You will initially get a headache but you will definitely not smell anything. The two organs that depend most on oxygen – the brain and the heart – will then shut down,” Muscat said.
Muscat recalls that the very first patient he treated in 1988 had 75 per cent of his blood poisoned by carbon monoxide. He was saved just in time after his housemates grew suspicious when they realised that he had stopped singing while taking a bath. He was found unconscious.
In a separate incident, some eight people were rushed to hospital from a hairdressing salon where a generator had been placed in an area without proper ventilation.
Muscat noted that carbon monoxide detectors were improving, however, he would not solely rely on the gadget. Ventilation is imperative.
He urged people to use gas heaters, common in Malta during wintertime, only on open landings or in hallways.
Gas water heaters inside bathrooms should be banned, he added. They can be installed outside.