‘Coal gas can kill people’ – Campers warned

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KUWAIT CITY, Feb 1: Internal Medicine specialist at Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital, Dr. Salem Al-Ayyad said he receives as part of his work at the police station, many cases of people sufferring from symptoms of inhaling gas emitted from various types of coal – coal which people use to keep themselves warm when they sleep, reports Al- Qabas daily. Cases of carbon monoxide poisoning have increased recently, as a result of inhaling coal fumes inside camps, rest houses, and even homes, according to doctors in public hospitals, which has led to a number of cases requiring admission in intensive care units, says Dr Al-Ayyad. Al-Ayyad pointed out there are days when more than 5 cases were received by one police station, often of relatives from one house, or friends on a road trip, and sometimes male and female domestic workers in homes, indicating that the severity of the cases varies, some of them come good, while most of them are transferred to ICUs and some are transferred to the wards.

Regarding the symptoms of gas suffocation, Al-Ayyad indicated that the most prominent of them are shortness of breath, headache, dizziness, nausea and abdominal pain, noting that some cases result in death. Dr. Al-Ayyad stated that the cases that are received abound during the winter season in particular, pointing out the importance of making sure that coal is turned into embers before entering with it into closed places in the best interest of each one’s health. Carbon monoxide is a gas that has no color, odor or taste. It rises when burning gasoline, wood, coal, or others, and tightly closed places are one of the first sites where carbon monoxide accumulates to dangerous levels.

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