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The city’s paramedic association plans to test new portable carbon monoxide detectors as they respond to calls at Ottawa-area homes.
Darryl Wilton, president of the Professional Paramedic Association of Ottawa, says the detectors monitor the air for carbon monoxide and beep if they detect the odourless, poisonous gas.
“We’ve seen instances in other jurisdictions where paramedics responded to completely unrelated medical calls, be it asthma, diabetes, cardiac, and their carbon monoxide monitors have detected the hazards,” said Wilton, who says other paramedic services in Ontario, including Niagara, London and Kitchener-Waterloo, already have them in place.
“In 2001, (the province) changed the building code so that all new buildings built since then would have carbon monoxide detection built into them,” said Wilton. “But any buildings that predated that didn’t.”
While it is now mandatory that all home owners have carbon monoxide detectors, Wilton says “people haven’t caught up, that is the reality.
“We are still seeing people who are in environments with carbon monoxide present; it is a deadly, poisonous gas and they don’t even know it’s there.”
The detectors range between $250 to $500 per unit. Wilton says it would be too “cost prohibitive” to outfit every paramedic with a device. Ideally, they would like to supply between 50 to 100 of the mobile units by next winter. But until then they’ll test two.
“We have proposed to buy two different units for testing in the Ottawa Paramedic Service just to make sure that they can withstand our (cold) temperatures and that these devices do what they are supposed to do before the city has to make an investment in them.”
pmccooey@ottawacitizen.com
查看原文...
Darryl Wilton, president of the Professional Paramedic Association of Ottawa, says the detectors monitor the air for carbon monoxide and beep if they detect the odourless, poisonous gas.
“We’ve seen instances in other jurisdictions where paramedics responded to completely unrelated medical calls, be it asthma, diabetes, cardiac, and their carbon monoxide monitors have detected the hazards,” said Wilton, who says other paramedic services in Ontario, including Niagara, London and Kitchener-Waterloo, already have them in place.
“In 2001, (the province) changed the building code so that all new buildings built since then would have carbon monoxide detection built into them,” said Wilton. “But any buildings that predated that didn’t.”
While it is now mandatory that all home owners have carbon monoxide detectors, Wilton says “people haven’t caught up, that is the reality.
“We are still seeing people who are in environments with carbon monoxide present; it is a deadly, poisonous gas and they don’t even know it’s there.”
The detectors range between $250 to $500 per unit. Wilton says it would be too “cost prohibitive” to outfit every paramedic with a device. Ideally, they would like to supply between 50 to 100 of the mobile units by next winter. But until then they’ll test two.
“We have proposed to buy two different units for testing in the Ottawa Paramedic Service just to make sure that they can withstand our (cold) temperatures and that these devices do what they are supposed to do before the city has to make an investment in them.”
pmccooey@ottawacitizen.com
查看原文...
