Carbon monoxide (CO) is invisible, cannot be detected by human senses, we cannot smell it or taste it. Tiny amounts off this gas in the air can kill us or it can inflict permanent damage to health. This deadly gas is encountered by most of us regularly, it is frequently in our homes and cars.

It is widely called the silent killer but the deaths are small in number in comparison to the great number of survivors who are poisoned by CO gas each year and the injuries can be irreversible.

This book is written for the lay person with no knowledge of CO but it is more detailed than many of the general and brief leaflets or web-pages written on the subject. By being better informed about CO we can all be better equipped to identify risks in our lives and protect ourselves, our families and friends from this poison.

It would be very easy to assume that simply buying a CO alarm will be enough to protect us. Indeed, it will help but amazingly many people could be exposed to potentially harmful levels of CO before the alarms is triggered. It may be surprising to discover that prolonged levels of CO above the maximum recommended for good air quality may not set off the alarm unless it reaches a much higher level. Most of us will be OK even with low background levels of CO (according to current research) but these levels can be very harmful and dangerous to high risk groups.