News reports about carbon monoxide are becoming more and more common. Some people die from it, and others become very ill or suffer permanent brain damage.
Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless gas.
It does not smell like automobile exhaust fumes, like some people think, although those fumes do carry carbon monoxide. Your gas appliances may be more harmful than an exhaust pipe, even if they are quieter and cleaner. The natural gas stoves, water heaters, ovens, laundry dryers and furnaces that so many of us use produce by-products, one of them being carbon monoxide. Small amounts of carbon monoxide are unimportant to your health, provided there is plenty of fresh air around to replace the bad stuff. But in the wintertime especially, when apartments and homes are shut as tightly as possible, the carbon monoxide tends to collect indoors, becoming more and more part of the air you breathe.