Smoke Alarms Aren't Enough

I received an email recently from Mr Handyman, one of my favorite sources, reminding us that carbon monoxide alarms save lives. Here are the basics:
Carbon Monoxide (CO) is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless toxic gas. It is not to be confused with Carbon Dioxide (CO2), which is believed to be the principal agent causing global warming. The presence of CO in the air you breathe reduces your blood's capacity to carry oxygen.
CO poisoning occurs when it is present in high concentrations. Symptoms are headaches, nausea, dizziness, burning eyes, confusion, and drowsiness. In higher concentrations, people lose consciousness, experience brain damage, and die.
The average CO background level in our homes is .5 ppm (parts per million) to 5 ppm. Chimney fire exhaust contains 5,000 ppm. If the air you breathe contains 6,400 ppm, you will die in less than 20 minutes.
CO is produced because of incomplete combustion of fuels like propane, heating oil, coal, charcoal, natural gas, wood or gasoline. Easy precautions are; 1) Don't run you car in the garage with the door closed. 2) Don't run a gas generator in the garage with the door closed. 3) Leave gas BB Q's outside. 4) Don't use kerosene or propane heaters inside. 5) If your fireplace is back drafting smoke into the house, open all the windows. However, even gas burning furnaces, water heaters, fireplace inserts and oven/ranges can produce CO if they're malfunctioning.
In the US, 113,000 people are treated for CO poisoning each year. That's an average of once every five minutes. Fortunately only about 2,000 people a year die from this (that's still more than 5 a day) and of them only 80 die from malfunctioning home appliances.
CO alarms are fairly cheap ($25 to $110) but be sure that they adhere to the UL standard. Some plug in, and others run on batteries.
Install your CO alarm(s) near where you sleep, as that is when you are least likely to notice the symptoms. CO is only slightly lighter than air, so it won't necessarily rise. Put your alarms in areas of good air flow or on the wall at nostril height. Keep them high enough so small children and pets don't trash them.
But most importantly, get them. I don't want you to be a statistic in a future article.