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Carbon monoxide in the kitchen
Name: Doug Moe
Status: Other
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: N/A
Question:
Why is it that we must vent the exhaust from furnaces, and hot water heaters,
dryers, etc. but yet when we cook on a gas stove, it is not vented outside?
Does that not produce carbon monoxide also?
Replies:
Yes, gas stoves produce carbon monoxide, but much less than furnaces water
heaters, dryers, etc. because less fuel is used. You can install a vented
exhaust hood in your kitchen.
Mortis
Just a brief addition to mortis' note. The production of many exhaust gases
occurs when fuel is burned. In an atmosphere low on oxygen, comparatively
more carbon MONoxide gets produced than the relatively safe carbon Dioxide.
The situation worsens as more and more oxygen is used up. This situation
could be serious and even deadly in a tight, poorly vented house. The volume
of exhaust gases produced indeed depends upon the amount of fuel used as
mortis discussed in his note. The carbon monoxide accumulation in a closed
environment becomes deadly because the CO becomes preferentially absorbed into
the blood and bound over the normal air (nitrogen/oxygen) mixture.
Suffocation due to lack of oxygenation of the blood and death can quickly
follow.
Rickru
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Update: June 2012
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