When you think of anything related to the flooring industry, carbon monoxide (CO) is likely not one of the things that makes the list. When people think of carbon monoxide poisoning, their minds often go directly to a running car in a closed garage, or a malfunctioning furnace, wood stove, or fireplace with poor ventilation. However, CO poses a risk in many other industries that are not often talked about. Flooring is a big one of those.
Understanding the Risks of Carbon Monoxide Exposure in the Flooring Industry
Where are the risks coming from, then?
It doesn’t seem like anything involved in the process of scraping up floors or laying down new ones would carry such risks. We must consider what sources of CO can be. Where does CO come from typically? In most cases, it is a product of combustion of various materials or hydrocarbons. As it turns out, many of the machines used in the flooring industry to work on floors are propane powered. That means they must combust propane to function, which makes them a source of CO.
Any time a combustion source is used indoors, people also inside and in the immediate area will also be exposed to carbon monoxide gas. In a very large room, like a gymnasium or a convention center, the volume of the room coupled with heavy ventilation allows the CO to spread out so quickly that a CO monitor would likely only read 1-2 PPM even just a few feet from the source. However, in a small or poorly ventilated space, that number can climb very quickly as the CO begins to concentrate in the room.
Why Traditional CO Detectors Aren't Enough
Anyone working in this type of environment may look around the room and identify a standard home-use or commercial CO detector on the ceiling or wall and think they are protected. However, those types of detectors are not designed to go off quickly, but rather over a long period of time with exposure levels past the limits set by OSHA for safe work environments. Those detectors are designed to alarm after the CO has been present in harmful amounts for 10-50 minutes. At the OSHA recommended low alarm level of 35 PPM, a standard wall/ceiling mount CO detector will not alarm for hours.
As more and more information in the medical community comes to light about the effects of low level CO exposure over long periods of time, it is becoming abundantly clear that workers in industries where CO is a constant threat should be equipping themselves with the means to detect rising CO levels quickly and accurately to avoid long term damage to their bodies and thinking capabilities.
The effects of low-level CO exposure over long periods of time cannot be understated. A publication released by Harvard Medical School in March of 2023 had this to say on the matter:
“If you are exposed to very low levels of carbon monoxide over a longer period (weeks or months), your symptoms can appear like the flu, with headache, fatigue, malaise (a general sick feeling) and sometimes nausea and vomiting. People with long-term exposure to low levels of carbon monoxide also can have numbness, unexplained vision problems, sleep disturbances, and impaired memory and concentration.”
https://www.health.harvard.edu/a_to_z/carbon-monoxide-poisoning-a-to-z
The Critical Role of Personal CO Monitoring
Threats like those mentioned above are why it is critical to keep yourself and your workforce safe with devices like the Sensorcon Inspector or the Sensorcon Protector. Designed to run for a minimum of 2 years and 5 years respectively, we designed our devices to be easy and intuitive to operate with very little interaction. When employees wear a portable CO detector, they can rest easy knowing that their environment is safe and that an alarm will notify them within seconds if that is no longer the case.
Stay safe and know your environment!