Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 25, 1993 TAG: 9304260395
SECTION: HOMES PAGE: D-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: EARNI YOUNG KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Tooley, of Monteverde, Fla., said MAD-AIR - a handy way to say Mechanical Air Distribution and Interacting Relationships - is the phenomena of a poorly ventilated house combining with combustible appliances like a gas oven, furnace or hot water heater, to fill a home with deadly carbon monoxide gas.
Speaking at a seminar during the recent Affordable Comfort Conference in Philadelphia, Tooley said the incidence of MAD-AIR has been growing steadily since it was first reported in 1987.
"With the continued emphasis on tightly sealed, energy-efficient dwellings, adverse interacting relationships of combustion, all types of exhaust equipment, duct leakage and interior door closures must become the issues of the 1990s," Tooley said.
Few people are aware of the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning from home furnaces and other combustible appliances. Yet, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, about 200 Americans die each year of carbon monoxide poisoning associated with home heating equipment alone.
In addition, hundreds of people across the country are injured each year by the colorless, odorless gas.
Some experts, including physicians, believe the injury rates are far higher, because carbon monoxide poisoning mimics other illnesses and often is not properly reported.
Carbon monoxide is toxic because it chemically binds to hemoglobin and rapidly displaces oxygen in the blood, causing the brain, heart, muscles and organs to become oxygen-starved.
The most common symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning are headache, fatigue, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, trouble thinking and concentrating, vision problems, shortness of breath and heart palpitations. Not surprisingly, it is often misdiagnosed as a cold or the flu, even in hospital emergency rooms.
Brief exposure to high levels of carbon monoxide can kill you. Prolonged exposure to low levels of carbon monoxide can cripple you, according to Dr. Richard Paul Bonfiglio, vice president for medical affairs and medical director of Bryn Mawr Rehabilitation Hospital in Malvern, Pa.
"I've seen people who have had severe brain damage after being exposed to carbon monoxide for long periods," Bonfiglio said. "At the lower levels, they have subtle personality changes, memory loss, trouble thinking logically - things that tend to go unrecognized."
While most of the national publicity and concern has focused on forced-air furnaces, Tooley and others attending the Philadelphia conference are just as worried about carbon monoxide produced by other combustible appliances, especially gas ovens, hot-water tanks and unvented space heaters.
"The biggest problem in the home is the gas cook stove, usually the oven," said Rob DeKieffer, a Colorado weatherization specialist.
DeKieffer, executive director of the Sun Power Consumer Association, said about 6 percent of gas stoves leak significant amounts of carbon monoxide when in operation. The amounts of the deadly gas can escalate to dangerous levels very quickly when the oven is used for an extended period of time, such as in preparing the Thanksgiving Day feast, he said.
"We have brand new ovens that produce 300 parts per million of carbon monoxide when they operate, that's more than enough to make people sick," DeKieffer said.
Water heaters can become another source of carbon monoxide when a pressure change created by the operation of another appliance - an unvented clothes dryer, a kitchen exhaust or attic fan - is strong enough to reverse the air flow in the exhaust vent, sucking the combustible gases back into the house.
Tooley advises homeowners using their fireplaces to keep the blaze small or to crack a window to provide an air source.
"Air is like crooked men, crooked rivers, teen-agers and cheap labor. They all seek the path of least resistance," said Tooley, president of Natural Florida retrofit, of Montverde, Fla.
Tooley, who has received the Florida Governor's Energy Award for his work on forced-air distribution diagnostics, said new homes are especially prone to the MAD-AIR syndrome because they use forced-air furnaces and central air-conditioning systems, which are extremely sensitive to pressure changes within the structure. The ducts for these systems also frequently develop leaks.
But Tooley and DeKieffer see a lot of MAD-AIR in their business, which is largely weatherizing and installing air-conditioning and heating systems in existing homes.
"We've been tinkering with the way houses operate without considering the consequences," Tooley said. "Air flow in, through and around a house is an important concern."
They advise homeowners to have their furnace, central air-system and other combustible appliances checked for carbon monoxide leaks by a heating contractor before any further weatherization of their homes.
by CNB