The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1916-02-07
DANGER OF DEATH
FROM AUTO FUMES
Adequate Ventilation Needed in Gar
ages Where Motors Are "Idling''
Carbon Monoxide Poison.

Several cases have been reported
within the past month of asphyxiation
from automobile gas fumes, which
Chicago physicians have defined as
petromortis. - In these cases the vic
TINS were found seated in or standing
alongside of their automobile in
garage, apparently suddenly overcome
while making adjustments to or test
ing the motor preparatory to taking
the car on the road. In commenting
on this new danger of working on a
motor car in a closed garage, DR.. E.
d. Enfield in an article appearing in a
recent issue of the Horseless Age, the
automobile trade magazine, says that
the owner or private chauffeur should
never take the risk of confirming him
self in the small private garage with
q motor exhausing into the air he
has to breathe, but if work must be
done with the motor running the doors
and windows should be open to
provide a free current of air. AIDE
quate ventilation is the only means OF
escaping this fatal poisoning.
In the cases recently reported, says
DR.. Enfield, death resulted from being
confined in a room with an ''idling
motor exhausting into the air of the
room. AS it would seem that death in
these cases came too soon, and after
too short a period of combustion to
be the result of mere oxygen exhaus-
ton of the air in the room, a toxic
agent has. been sought as cause of
death, and apparently discovered in
the carbon monoxide gas, which Is
one of the products of incomplete COM
bustion in a gasoline motor just as it
in a coal stove. In the ordinary burn
ing process, in either the motor or the
stove, the oxygen of the air unites
with the carbon of the fuel in the
proportion of two atoms of oxygen to
one of carbon, producing the compare
lively harmless gas, carbon dioxide.
In the carbon monoxide gas which
results from incomplete burning of the
charge of gasoline vapor there IS real
and insidious danger. This gas is conf
posed of one atom of oxygen only, COM
bined with one atom of carbon.
Carbon monoxide is a very active
poison 1t is the most poisonous con
stituent of ordinary lighting or fuel
gas. 1t does not cause a feeling OF sui
location at first, so that the victims
rarely try to reach the open in time to
save themselves, rather they fall quiet
" and easily into a state of uncon-
GClOuSHNoS, IiO4ii NAALNiA5 Il IL AeAsAS 49,
they do not return.
Carbon monoxide as a poison acts on
the blood and through the blood on
the other tissues, particularly the nerv-
GUS system. 1t can and does cause pa
ralysis, deafness, commissions and a
large group of other symptoms. Often
if the poisoning is not fatal, it leads to
chronic invalidism and mental weak
ness, which in varying degrees may
last throughout life.
Just how much effect the constant
daily breathing of a small quantity OF
this poison, too small quantity to
have any immediate noticeable results
will have on health, mental and physi-
cal, the physicians do not know exact
ly. That it must have some effect is
fairly certain.
The remedy for the small garage is
simple enough, merely the lessening OF
this source of pollution as much as
possible and a more frequent exchange
of air. 1t is often possible to have Z
pipe within flexible connections so that
the exhaust of any motor which has
to be idled can be conducted out OF
doors. Usually it will be possible al
slight expense to fit two or three ade
quate ventilators in the ceiling. II
twill always be possible to open the
windows wide occasionally and let the
: poisoned air escape.