Carbon monoxide detectors, regular maintenance could save your life

Carbon monoxide detectors, regular maintenance could save your life

When heating your home this winter, it's important to make sure you're taking the right precautions to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning.

When heating your home this winter, it’s important to make sure you’re taking the right precautions to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning.

Around 50,000 people in the United States go to the emergency room every year for it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The most common symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning include headache, dizziness, and nausea.

Dr. Thomas Waters, an emergency medicine physician at Cleveland Clinic, said make sure you have working detectors in your home.

Your furnace and water heater should be serviced annually.

If you turn on your car in the garage, the door needs to be open.

“Anywhere there is combustion going on, whether it’s from a heater or an oven or an engine that’s running…is where you could see carbon monoxide accumulating within the home,” Dr. Thomas Waters, an emergency medicine physician, said.

If you suspect there is a carbon monoxide leak in your home, call the fire department to check it out.