Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1911-09-01
is DANGER
IN A LEAKY Pipe
# You Use Gas Your Safety
Lies in Well Ventilated
Rooms.
GAS A~SPHYxlATES
Il Is Due TO the Action Of an Energetic
Blood Poison, Carbon Monoxide,
and Constitutes 80 to 20 Per
Cent. of Water Gas.

New York Times: The marked in
crease in deaths from gas poisoning
during the present winter I'VE the nor
NAL average Is attributed TO the ex-
treme cold. The moisture in service
pipes freezes, partly or completely clos
ing them. This makes especially a
gerous the custom Of sleeping in ILL.,
ventilated rooms In which the gas is
left burning with a fame so small that
a partial interruption of the flow viii
~eXtinguish it. If after such extinguish-
ment the flow is resumed and the gas
escapes into the air, those who breathe
1T are likely to suffer serious con-
sequences.
Fatalities from breathing gas are
usually attributed TO a~sphyxiation. This
is correct if the word is used in it's
original meaning OF a cessation of heart
action, but it is rot at all correct If
used to indicate death from suffocatiOn
as in drowning or from immersion in
carbonic acid. Gas asphyXiation is due
to the action Of an extremely energetic
blood poison, carbon monoXide, which
constitutes from 80 to 40 per cent of tho
water gas now distributed in New York
and most American seaboard citiesl
This is a matter which should be we'll
understood by everybody using water
gas for light or heat, and a plain state
ment Of facts as to the phenomena OF
gas poisoning should be of general pub
lie Interest.
Will Cause Quick Death.
Carbon monoxide, represented by the
symbol co, is q gas to be afraid of
Experiments on animals show that ain
containing as little as four-tenths of /
per cent. after sufficient exposure, will
always cause death in a man, and that
anything over two-tenths will in many
cases prove fatal. 1t is without smell
or irritating properties, which makes it
the more dangerous. The first sympA
toms Of carbon monoXide poisoning are
dizziness, shortness of breath and heart
palpitation. Sometimes there is a
drowsiness similar to that produced by
alcohol. When more of the gas has
been absorbed there is a failure OF
muscular power, and the mind becomes
confused. The loss Of muscular and
sensory power gradually becomes more
and more complete until death ensueS
There is no pain or serious discomfort
and commonly ne consciousness Of dan.
ger. What happens is well understood
The h~aem0globin, or red coloring mat.
ter of the blood absorbs oxygen from
the air and carries it with the circula.
ton to the tissues, where 1t is used up
The p]Ceration is essential to life. But
carbon monOXide has for haemoglobib
about -four hundred times the affinity
Of y Hence it is absorbed by~i'
much more readily, and forms with is
a more stable compound than does
oxygen. In proportion to the amount
Of carbon monoXide taken up by it,
oxygen is excluded, and when about
20 to so per cent OF saturation is
reached death is inevitable.
In the average man the weight OF
blood is to the weight OF the body as
one to twenty-one. This is represented
by about three litres Of blood, of whict
the h~aemoglobin requires TO saturate il
about 600 &C of carbon monoEide. Whelt
at rest a man breathes about 5 litres
of air per minute. In about twenty
minutes Of exposure to an atmosphere
containing two-tenths of a per cent. ot
co, he would begin to feel the effects
in the symptoms above mentioned. II
the exposure is continued or the breath
ing stimulated the consequences are
likely to be very serious, and if the per
centage of co in the air breathed is
increased death is scarcely to be
avoided.
Never Neglect a Leak.
A gas leak, however slight, is never
safely neglible. That leak known to exA
list and sufficient TO cause annoyance
from the presence OF a disagreeablA
odor in the air are often neglected
can be attributed only to ignorance.
The smell of gas is a danger signal as
significant as the rattle of a snake i.
the grass. 1t is most to be feared, how
lever, in the odorless form In which il
enters houses from leaks in buried
mains or service pipes. UncarburetteG
water gas, carrying about As per cent
of co, is odorless; Illuminating gas
which has beeen filtered through the
ground loses it's odor-imparting addi
tions-the naphtha vapors which rem.
der it luminous-and becomes s. gas or
nearly equal parts of hydrogen ano
carbon monoxide. 1t is by far the moS>
dangerous constituent of what is calleA
sewer gas. 1t accounts for the genera:
prevalence of anaemic conditions
among the poorly housed of our city's
population, and constitutes a fire haz.
ard which is the more disquieting from
being indeJerminate.
The citizen needs to be at all times
on his guard against the danger to
which he is exposed from gas. This
danger the most timid cannot exagger'
ate nor the bravest safely disregard.