Health Tip: Using a Carbon Monoxide Detector

What to do if the alarm sounds

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(HealthDay News) -- If you have a carbon monoxide detector in your home, you also need to be prepared with an action plan in case the alarm sounds.

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The National Safety Council offers these suggestions if there may be a carbon monoxide leak in your home:

• Quickly confirm that the alarm is coming from a carbon monoxide detector -- not a smoke detector.
• Make sure that everyone in the house is feeling OK, without any symptoms. These may include fatigue, headache, weakness, confusion, disorientation, nausea or dizziness.
• Anyone experiencing symptoms should be immediately taken out of the house to get medical attention.
• If everyone is OK, open up the windows in your home and turn off any boiler, furnace, chimney or appliance that could release carbon monoxide.
• Have a technician inspect all potential sources of carbon monoxide -- including appliances and chimneys that burn fuel -- to make sure they are working properly.

-- Diana Kohnle