**Important Message To Boaters About CARBON MONOXIDE**

After spending 3 days at the International Boating and Water Safety Summit, I want to share with you some of the biggest take aways. In the first slide, these are two (brave) Mothers (from Ohio & Oklahoma) who both lost sons (7 & 9) to Carbon Monoxide poisoning. They are experienced boating families. They were on the lake and the CO from the exhaust (inboard open ski boats/bow rider) circulated back into the cockpit where they were sitting (not enclosed at all) and the boys fell overboard and were not revived. Initially labeled as a drowning, the coroner reports exposed high levels of CO in their blood. This happened in a very short period of time. This is MORE COMMON THAN YOU THINK and it is NOT OKAY. The second slide shows a woman (far left) who was slowly poisoned by CO in her new home. She went from being a marathon runner to using a cane and being on oxygen. The CO leak in her house caused brain damage and cardiac problems among many other things. The symptoms are masked by many other illnesses and the only way to know is if you get your blood tested from an artery within 4 hours of exposure. When you breathe in carbon monoxide, the CO also binds to hemoglobin. It binds so strongly that is keeps oxygen from binding as well. Carbon monoxide (CO) prevents the blood system from effectively carrying oxygen around the body, specifically to vital organs such as the heart and brain. As you may already know, Carbon Monoxide is odorless, tasteless, invisible gas. It is formed by the incomplete combustion of fuels. We bought one of these portable CO detectors: SensorCon Inspector by Molex: www.SensorCon.com. Looking forward to keeping it on and monitoring our house and boats. Here is a website with more info on CO: https://www.ncoaa.us
Link to best smoke & CO detectors of 2022 from Consumer Reports: https://bit.ly/3wfPw6w
Everyone thinks it’s generators but CO can be in SO many different places. Please take a few minutes to read the websites. Update your CO detectors in your home and on your boat. Sharing of post encouraged so that we can raise awareness and save lives.