It is a deadly gas that can't be seen, and can't be smelled. Deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning are made even more tragic by the fact that they can so easily be avoided. The installation of detectors can alert people to the accumulation of carbon monoxide before it is too late. It is a small price to pay to save innocent lives. It is imperative that the dangers of carbon monoxide are highlighted to ensure that all property owners put health and safety at the top of their list of priorities.
Rogue gas fitters facing jail as safety law passes hurdle
2:01am Monday 4th February 2008
Comments (6)
ROGUE gas fitters who put people at risk of carbon monoxide poisoning will face jail instead of a fine, in a major victory for The Northern Echo's Silent Killer campaign.
A backbench Bill to dramatically increase punishments for negligent work - including on gas appliances - has won Government support.
The backing means the Health and Safety (Offences) Bill, which cleared its first Commons hurdle on Friday, is now odds-on to become law.
Keith Hill, the Labour MP for Streatham, in south London, has also courted the opposition parties, to ensure his Bill reaches the statute book quickly.
It is prompted by scandals such as a badly-trained gas fitters escaping with fines as low as £4,000 when their actions have claimed lives. Earlier this month, it was revealed that up to 20,000 rogue fitters - either untrained or deregistered for negligence - are servicing gas fires and boilers in British homes.
A Commons debate heard that 1.5 million gas appliances were being installed every year by workers not registered by the Council for Registered Gas Installers (Corgi).
CO poisoning claims up to 20 lives each year and injures a further 200 people. Those victims suffer kidney failure, blindness, brain damage, memory loss, personality changes and incontinence.
The Northern Echo launched its Silent Killer campaign following the death of Anne Brennan, a 19-year-old student from Houghton-le-Spring, Wearside, in Durham City accommodation in 1995. An inquest ruled she was unlawfully killed and her landlord was fined £10,000 for failing to ensure the boiler in the property was properly maintained.
Mr Hill told MPs: "There is a history, going back to the mid-Nineties, of judges expressing discontent at being unable to impose jail sentences for health and safety offences.
"I believe the courts are right to call for the availability of the penalty of imprisonment."
In reply, Anne McGuire, a work and pensions minister, revealed her department would throw its weight behind the legislation, to stamp out "derisory" penalties.
Your Say YourThe Northern Echo
Paul Lerner, Feltham says...
10:57am Mon 4 Feb 08
Note this is not the only really significant preventable cause of death that could be addressed. Deaths from blood clots in hospital are said to run at 40,000 a year.
I have recently written to Barry Sheerman head of the All Party Gas Safety Group at the House of Commons pointing out that Radon also a gas kills 1500 people a year thats as many people in one year as die in 200 years from carbon monoxide due to gas appliances.
The hype that CO has as " The silent killer" and the commonest cause of poisoning in the UK is such nonsense. Radon is no less silent and certainly far more deserves the title of the commonest poison in the UK.
The truth is that CO poisoning is a multimillion pound business generating large sums of money for vested interests whilst the reality is that the number of deaths caused whilst extremely tragic for the families concerned is extremely insignificant when looking at the pattern of preventable deaths in this country.
bg, England says...
1:56pm Tue 5 Feb 08
However, I agree that not enough attention is given to radon gas and prostate cancer deaths.
kd, plumbers do not work on gas, gas fitters/heating engineers do. To be CORGI registered to work on unvented systems, LP and methane gases, domestic, commercial, kitchen appliances, etc is expensive and so reflected in the call out costs.
You also say that 20 people dying would not be an issue to be addressed, yet you suggest that the high prices of a plumber needs to be addressed so that people can afford to have their boilers checked for safety. So on one hand you're saying it doesn't need to be addressed, but on the other you're saying is does.
Paul Lerner, says...
4:27pm Tue 5 Feb 08
The point I am making is that the government is very partial about which causes of death they address.
Also the general feeling amongst registered gas installers is that if there weren't so many parasitic organisations feeding off the back of installers and rather less prescriptive legislation people would actually be able to afford servicing more. Also they would be less inclined to use unregistered installers if the registered could afford to be cheaper.In fact 50% of all incidents happen in properties where servicing hasn't been done for 5 years or so.
The latest CPA1 in flue gas analysis will just increase servicing costs more, and as Dr Ben Croxford who has carried out research into CO agreed when he looked into it after I pointed this out to him , over 90% of his At Risk appliances were found without the aid of Flue Gas Analysis.
Tony Land, says...
11:09pm Tue 5 Feb 08
Well done for putting things in perspective. Just have to convince those at parliament to reconsider there views and concentrate on running the country effectively instead of ordering more Petty Cash vouchers
carwaterguide, San Francisco, CA says...
12:16pm Thu 27 Nov 08
http://carwaterguide
.blogspot.com
In this section
- Age group warns of monoxide dangers
- Guidelines over poison gas dangers
- Major campaign for action on Silent Killer
- Thousands at risk from gas dubbed Silent Killer
- Spreading message of silent killer risk
- Closing in on rogue gas fitters
- Killer gas at school will lead to charge
- Awaiting outcome of killer gas investigation
- MP drives home CO safety message
- Echo moves to protect students from CO gas
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kd, consett says...
10:02am Mon 4 Feb 08
1,500,000 new boilers fitted each year
20 people die.
Statisticaly that would not even register as a problem nor even as an issue to be addressed.
How many OAP's die through not being able to afford to heat their homes?
How many children are killed each year by speeding drivers?
How many people cannot afford to have their boiler serviced because of the very high prices of a plumber?
Its all in the numbers. Create laws that jail the likes of the Northern Rock management