Do You Have a Carbon Monoxide Alarm?

I have a confession to make: I have been singularly unsuccessful in convincing our customers of the necessity of purchasing carbon monoxide alarms.

I could say “we” have been unsuccessful but that would be unfair to the efforts of our superb marketing team. They have only tried to implement a series of strategies that yours truly has cooked up…to disastrous effect! Just think: We have tried selling by direct mail what I think is the world’s best – as well as one of the world’s cheapest -- CO alarms – at our wholesale cost! We have offered them to new customers. We have tried selling them on our website, also at cost! But over four years we have sold fewer than 500 alarms! That is less than .1% of our customers!

Ever since the father of a friend of mine came close to walking through heaven’s gate because of a faulty boiler, I have been obsessed with the importance of CO alarms. Let me be clear: EVERY HOMEOWNER AND BUSINESS MUST HAVE AT LEAST ONE IF NOT TWO CARBON MONOXIDE ALARMS.

CO kills. And it is all too common. Recently we were fortunate to have a TERRIFIC young lady join us. One day over lunch she heard we were offering CO meters. She told her story to colleagues and when I heard about it I asked her to write it down. This is the email she sent me:

Jeff:

I had a very frightening experience last February involving carbon monoxide.

My roommates and I had just moved into a new house. One evening two of us returned home at the same time and noticed a strange odor. We thought nothing of it as renovations were ongoing and the house had many funny odors during that process. But our third roommate had been home for a substantial amount of time already. At one point she complained that she was feeling “out of it”. Jen and I were quite tired from our workday so we ignored her and continued whatever we were doing. We didn’t think about the fact that a woman and her son who lived in a suite on the lower level had been unusually quiet and we had not heard any noise from them all evening.

After dinner we sat around the kitchen table, not saying much but all feeling sick: you know, headaches, dizziness, etc. When my friend Becky, who had been home all day, got up from her chair, she passed out. Jen and I realized something was wrong and instantly thought of the odor. We called 911 and when the Fire Department arrived, the meters they carried started beeping wildly before even entering our house. It was Carbon Monoxide.

The firemen asked if there was anybody else in the house and we told them about the family downstairs. They rushed down and found the woman and her 4 year old son. They were immediately taken to the hospital. The three of us were able to talk to the fire and ambulance personnel and were informed that the level of Carbon Monoxide on the floor where we lived was over 300 times the minimally harmful level for humans! They told us that if we had all just gone to sleep as we planned we
would not have woken up. The woman and her son were affected more quickly than
us as they lived on the level where the problem originated.

We spent the next day in the hospital for monitoring and had terrible headaches and dizziness for days afterwards. We couldn’t stand up without feeling like we were going to faint. It was a terrible recovery week.

Our house did not have CO monitors, and we did not even think to put install one when we moved in. We have been taught, as a society, that smoke detectors and fire alarms can save our lives. But until recently, CO alarms have not fallen into that same category. They need to be. In my life, it is now a necessity. Sometimes I think that the ending of this story might not have been an educational one, but a terminal one. Though I am grateful that it was the former of the two, I don’t want anyone to
experience a night like ours.

My friend’s experience was similar. He is 84 and had lost his wife a few months earlier. His wife had been sick for a couple years and they had a care-giver who used to come by a few times a week. After his wife passed away he stayed in touch with the aide. One night she happened to swing by his house on the way home from work and stopped by to say hello. She could see the lights on but there was no answer when she knocked. Concerned she opened the door and found my friend lying on the ground. Apparently she also felt faint and called 911. By the time the police arrived, both of them were passed out. They both spend a couple days in the hospital recovering.

Sadly, these stories are all too familiar. Some people may recall Vitas Gerulitis, one of my favorite tennis players in the 70s. In 1995, Vitas died of CO poisoning that was emitted from a pool heater in the home of a friend with whom he was staying on Long Island. That same year a family of five in Cleveland died from CO. The symptoms of CO poisoning are very similar to flu symptoms so most people dismiss them: headaches, weakness, feeling tired, nausea, shortness of breath. In fact, that family in Cleveland had visited their doctor the week before and he sent them home to recuperate! Thanks, Doc!

Some states and towns have passed laws that require builders to install CO alarms in all houses and apartments. Fire departments throughout the country recommend them. You would think that businesses that make them and sell them would do all they could to get the word out. But somehow we have all failed.

We will continue to offer the alarms at our wholesale cost at http://www.onlinechoice.com But I would love to hear from customers who have had similar experiences. And if anybody has a better idea about how we can get these alarms into all of our customers’ homes, please write!