Amanda's Law

It is now mandatory for domestic dwellings in the state of New York to be fitted with CO alarms. More information here.
How long before we get similar legislation in the UK?

Thinking of getting a CO alarm?

Well, that means you haven't already got one, which is NOT good, but at least you're going to get one.
Get one today.
Get one that sounds an audible alarm, and that has the British Standard ('Kitemark') EN50291.
Better still, get one that has a digital display/readout, and also records peak levels.
One per household is an absolute minimum - one per flame-producing appliance (so one for every fire, boiler, cooker etc. in the house) is the ideal.
Consult the instructions that come with your alarm for the best place to fit it.

Inexpensive CO alarms

Calendar, the Yorkshire regional ITV news programme, has a campaign currently running around CO safety.
On this page there are details of local manufacturers and distributors of inexpensive domestic CO alarms and detectors.

What are 'safe' levels and 'dangerous' levels of CO?

CO concentration is usually expressed in volumetric parts per million ('ppm').
There is no 'safe' amount of CO to be exposed to, if you ask me. That is, given the choice, I would rather not be breathing any at all, thanks all the same!
150 ppm is accepted by some as a 'safe' exposure for a limited period of time. Many domestic alarms will sound their warning at this level.
Others go by the level of 40 ppm, and nothing more than that.

As part of the British Standard EN50292, domestic alarms sold in the UK must not sound an alarm below 70 ppm - presumably to prevent 'false' alarms. Most experts would agree that exposure to this amount of CO for any length of time is very unhealthy indeed.
The only sensible approach is the 'ALARA' principle - 'As Low As Reasonably Achievable.' No amount of CO is good.

The pulse oximtery problem

Although COHb does not make you 'cherry pink' to the naked eye, the absorption spectrum of COHb does cause problems with pulse oximetry.
A simple pulse oximeter simply measures how 'pink' the patient's blood is. "If a patient looks pink to you, they look pink to an oximeter." Pulse oximeters are confused by COHb, and read it as oxy-Hb. So someone with, say, 30, 40 50% COHb on board will have a PulsOx reading ticking along quite happily at 98%!
So not only is simple oximetry useless for detecting CO exposure, it is actually misleading in, for example, someone from a house fire.
The important exception to this are pulse oximeters like the Rad 57, which is designed specifically to test for COHb.

CO alarms - they are NOT the same as smoke alarms!

I have met more than one doctor who was under the impression that CO alarms and smoke alarms were one and the same thing. They are not!
A smoke alarm costs around a fiver, and lets you know if there is particulate smoke around. A CO alarm costs around £40 for a decent one. The best have 'real-time' digital displays and will record peak levels.
You can get CO alarms at all major DIY stores, and also through the Tesco website.
There are cheaper ones around that simply change colour in the presence of CO, but would you want to trust one of these if you were asleep or semi-conscious??