Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1911-08-31
IS DANGER
IN A LEAkY PIPE
IL You Use Gas Your Safety
Lies in Well Ventilated
Rooms.
HOW GAS AsPAYx,ATEs


Blood Poison. Carbon Monoxide,
and Constitutes 80 to 40 Per
Cent. Of Water Gas.
New York Times: The marked in
crease in deaths from gas poisoning
during the present winter over the nor-
NAL average is attributed 10 the ex-
IRENE cold. The moisture in service
pipes freezes. partly or completely clos
ing them. This makes especially dam
gerous the custom of sleeping in ILL
ventilated room in which the gas is
left burning with a flame so small that
a partial interruption of the tiow will
eXtinguish 1t. II after such exttnguish-
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 ~asphyxiation. This
Is correct IL the word is used in it's
original meaning OF u cessation of heart
action. but it is not at all correct II
used to indicate death from suffooation
as in drowning or from immersion i'm
carbonic acid. Gas a~sphyxiation is due
to the action of an extremely energetic
blood poison, carbon monoxide. which
constitutes from 80 to 40 per rent OF the
water gas now distributed in New York
and most American %seaboard cities.
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 a gas to be afraid OF.
Experiments on animals show that air
containing as little as four-tenths OF I
per cent. after sufficient exposure. will
always cause death in a man. and that
anything over twO-tenths will i'm many
or irritating properties. which MAKE 1t
the more dangerous. The first symp-
toms OF carbon monOxide poisoning are
dizziness, shortness of breath and heart
palpitatfon. Sometimes there ia a
drowsiness similar to that produced by
been absorbed there ia 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 nc consciousness of dan
ger. What happens is we'll understood.
lAC " NOlOI AAA6
ter Of the blood absorbs oxygen from
the air and carries 1t with the circula
ton to the tissues, where it is used up.
The pOeration Is essential to life. But
carbon monoxide has for haemoglobin
about four hundred times the affinity
of oxygen. Hence it is absorbed by it
| much more readily. and forms with it
a more stable compound h does
oxygen. In proportion to the
of carbon monoxide taken up by 1t,
oxygen is excluded, and when about
20 to so per CEN of saturation is
reached death is inevitable.
In the average mar 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 which
the ~haemoglobin requires to saturate it
about 600 &C of carbon monOxtde. When
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. of
GO, 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 IL the per-
centage of co in the air breathed 10
increased death is scarcely to be
avoided.
Mover Neglect . Leak.
"A gas leak. however Sllght, IS never
safely neglible. That leak known to ex-
ist and sufficient to aus annoyance
from the presence of a disaEreeable
Odor i'm 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'm
the grass. 1t is most to be feared, how
ever, in the odorless form in which 1T
enters houses from leaks in buried
tnains or service pipes. U~ncarburetted
water gas, carrying about Is per cent.
of co, is odorIess: illuminating gas
which has beaen filtered through the
ground loses it's odor-imparting addi-
tions-the naphtha vapors which rem
der 1T luminous-and becomes a gas of
nearly equal PARTS of hydrogen and
carbon monox!de. 1t is by far the most
dangerous constituent OF what Is called
sewer gas. it accounts for the general
prevalence of anaemic conditions
among the poorly housed of our city'a
population. and constitutes a fire haz-
ard which is the more disQuieting from
being indeterminate.
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 timtd cannot exagger-
ate nor the braves safely disregard.
9ullafin IN Care Of Aaeee,