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Carbon Monoxide Detectors

The hon. Gentleman is right, and if he will bear with me, I will list the demands that I wish to make of my hon. Friend the Minister. Ten years ago one person died each week from CO poisoning on average; today it is one a fortnight across the country as a whole. But four in four years in High Peak alone is way above the average. Last year only eight people died from CO produced from mains piped gas—making it the best year on record—but proportionately higher numbers of deaths arising from CO are produced from the burning of coal, wood, oil and other domestic fuels. How can it be justified that gas is subject to proper regulation and licensing of fitters, but those other fuels are not? And why is the enforcement of high standards of gas fitting so inadequate? All deaths from CO, including all four of those in High Peak recently, have one thing in common—they were avoidable. None of those four would have died had the house or caravan concerned been fitted with CO detectors and alarms. I will return to that point later. Suffice it to say for now that more than half of mains gas-related carbon monoxide incidents over the years come from open flue gas appliances. Open flue gas central heating boilers, of a type which have not been installed since 1993 but which are still common in older properties, account for more than half of all deaths from CO poisoning in that time, says British Gas. CO is a highly toxic, colourless, odourless gas. It is produced by the combustion of fuel in poorly ventilated areas. It is the potent element of car exhaust emissions in confined spaces, which explains the use of car exhaust as a means of suicide. I occasionally find my past as a biology teacher of use in this place and I can tell the House that CO binds to haemoglobin in the blood as carboxyhaemoglobin 200 times more strongly than oxygen. Normally, haemoglobin binds loosely with oxygen in the lungs and then releases oxygen to the brain, muscles and other tissues in response to an oxygen deficit. Carboxyhaemoglobin, by contrast, is a stable compound that does not break down readily at all. In air with 21 per cent. oxygen, which is the normal level, a CO level of just 0.1 per cent. can cause half of the haemoglobin in the blood to bind permanently with CO, which means that the blood rapidly and permanently becomes unable to deliver sufficient oxygen to our muscles and brain. Last October in the House of Lords I joined David and Mary Jane Worswick, the parents of Mary Ann Bailey, at an event to mark the launch of the second carbon monoxide awareness week. I expected to meet other bereaved families, but there were actually very few of them. Most of the dozens of people present were victims of non-lethal CO poisoning. Some 200 cases of such poisoning are identified every year but many others go undiagnosed, because doctors do not routinely check for CO poisoning, because dead bodies are not routinely checked for CO poisoning as they are in France, and because symptoms vary from person to person and are easily confused with other causes. For example, 90 per cent. of cases of carbon monoxide poisoning produce headaches, 50 per cent. cause nausea, 50 per cent. cause dizziness, 30 per cent. cause tiredness, and flu-like symptoms are reported in 20 per cent. of cases. In more serious cases palpitations are found as well as chest pain. Collapse, unconsciousness and death follow. Those attending the event in the Lords exhibited a variety of medical conditions associated with brain damage due to oxygen starvation caused by CO poisoning. Many had physical disabilities such as being unable to walk and many had lost their jobs through disability, while some reported severe personality problems. Patient UK confirms that 200 people a year survive significant CO poisoning but long-term damage includes kidney failure, heart attack, blindness due to retinal bleeding, brain damage due to swelling of the brain, loss of memory, personality changes, irritability and incontinence. CO awareness week was launched in 2006 with a view to raising awareness of CO poisoning among medical practitioners and the general public, thereby tackling its causes. University of London research published by the Health and Safety Executive in 2006 shows that 23 per cent. of homes—one in four—have one or more defective gas appliances. Some 8 per cent. of homes—2 million houses, which are home to 4.5 million people—are at risk of dangerous levels of CO while 45 per cent. of homes had no information on or awareness of the dangers of CO. Problem appliances are most likely to be found in the homes of vulnerable people. CORGI has also published research. It found that 28 per cent. of CO deaths are caused by faulty or poorly maintained appliances. It confirmed that CO poisoning is not spread evenly across society, hitting some disproportionately with 27 per cent. of incidents occurring in rented accommodation while 50 per cent. of victims are elderly or children. More than half of all incidents, or 53 per cent., take place between November and February each year. British Gas reports that residents of flats and terraced houses who maintain their equipment properly are nevertheless subject to an additional risk of CO poisoning from poorly maintained equipment in neighbouring properties, with the CO coming through the walls. Some 55,000 businesses in this country are registered with CORGI, including many sole traders, which represents about 120,000 gas fitters. CORGI says that perhaps 20,000 people in this country carry out gas fitting, servicing and repair but are not registered. Some of those people will be qualified and their registration will have lapsed, but many will be untrained or inadequately trained, while some will have been removed from the CORGI register for negligence or malpractice. Those 20,000 people clearly represent a much higher risk to the public than CORGI-registered operators. It has been calculated that unregistered and possibly illegal gas workers are 32 times more likely to be involved in a serious CO incident than a CORGI-registered installer. British Gas reports that, of the 43 million gas appliances in this country, 14 million are gas boilers, of which 3.4 million are serviced under contract by British Gas's 8,600 qualified engineers. Another 3.4 million appliances are serviced regularly by other CORGI-registered operators. That means that 7 million gas appliances are not serviced at all, are not serviced regularly or are serviced by an unregistered engineer who is not qualified to do the work. To complement those figures, 3 million gas appliances are sold every year, but CORGI operatives install only half of them. I welcome the news that, as of last week, the company Part Centre—a major supplier of materials to the gas fitting industry—will supply parts only to purchasers who have a CORGI registration. I call on other companies to follow suit, and for the scheme to be extended to complete appliances and to appliances that burn other carbon fuels. I commend to the Minister early-day motion 462 tabled by the hon. Member for Colchester (Bob Russell) on this issue. I recently carried out a survey of residents in High Peak. We have had about 650 replies but some arrived too late to be included in my analysis. Of those replying, 95 per cent. had gas boilers and 20 per cent. used other carbon fuels, so it is clear that some people have more than one system. In addition, 92 per cent. had smoke detectors in their homes, while only 34 per cent. had CO detectors. In fact, that compares well with the national figures of 83 per cent. for smoke alarms and 21 per cent. for CO alarms. Only 3 per cent. of respondents to my survey had a CO detector that was portable for holiday use, and I remind the House that two British children died from CO poisoning in an incident in Corfu a couple of years ago. Thanks to the organisation CO-Awareness, I am now able to distribute free of charge 10 CO monitors with audible alarms to constituents who replied to the questionnaire and who do not already have such an alarm. I shall be giving them out in the next few weeks.