February Letters
Graham Davies R I P
Pat and family would like to thank everyone for the kind messages sent to us after the death of Graham at home on 3 January 2022. We have been overwhelmed by all the flowers, cards, letters of sympathy and support that we as a family have received.
Pat Davies.
Ann, Darren, Claire & children would like to thank friends & neighbours for all cards, flowers and offers of help during their resent sad and sudden loss of Philip. Thank you all and God bless.
Ann Dwyer
Carbon Monoxide (The Silent Killer).
I write this letter with regards to the potential hazards of carbon monoxide poisoning due to defective appliances. I write out of genuine concern for people’s safety.
It’s that time of year when central heating boilers have been adjusted from providing twice a day hot water to providing all day heating thus having to work a lot harder. If there is a fault the winter months will find it but also, as my wife and I experienced, any faults can lead to more serious issues such as a build up of potentially lethal levels of CARBON MONOXIDE. You have seen the adverts for the ‘silent killer’ but when we were suffering all sorts of symptoms we did not put two and two together. Our boiler had been a stalwart for over 20yrs and reliable so ‘ why change it’. Despite the symptoms which didn’t exactly match the normal ie we had, tingling skin, redness of complexion; apart from not being able to get up in the mornings, and a long career in the fire service we just didn’t twig it, until, on starting to put the heating on all day at this time of year the penny finally dropped as one evening we both felt awful and I finally ‘twigged it’.
What an idiot. The rest is history, shut off boiler, got emergency gas out etc. My wife and I visited our Doctors for blood tests and both had levels of CO equivalent to a cigarette smoker but neither of us had ever smoked. So it appeared that our symptoms were a very slow poisoning process which went over months until the boiler’s weakness was finally exposed, (incidentally we had a CO alarm which was testing OK but we can only assume the levels through summer months with daily ventilation etc did not trigger the lower limit sensitivity of the device, although it was an old detector).
We changed boiler of course and now have an ANNUAL GAS SAFETY CHECK (approx. cost £50 to £100) depending on Gas Safe or OFTEC engineer, but it is worth every penny to protect yourself and loved ones. Of course it is not just old boilers that go wrong so as a matter of course have your boiler checked annually.
And install a Carbon Monoxide Alarm or Alarms in accordance with the relevant manufacturer’s instructions.
The principle of course applies to the checking of all fuel burning boilers / heaters etc. but the message is the same and is simple – Annual Gas Safety Check of Appliances and an appropriate provision of Carbon Monoxide Detectors for your property.
Of course an annual gas safety check doesn’t prevent subsequent leaks but combined with a suitable provision of Carbon Monoxide Detector it is very obvious that this protection improves the odds in favour of you and your loved ones.
When installing new appliances always use the relevant Gas Safe or Oftec Registered engineers to ensure the appliance’s safety from the outset.
Just to add some footnotes to this don’t forget that if you, or anybody you know, live in rented accommodation your Landlord has a legal duty to organise a competent engineer to carry out an annual safety check of any gas boiler in the premises.
You may also wish to check that any self-catering accommodation that you book for holiday breaks eg the very popular ‘air B& B’s’ have had appropriate safety checks carried out to relevant appliances.
St Lythans resident