Cold Weather

Carbon Monoxide: Carbon monoxide (CO) is appropriately dubbed the silent killer: It is invisible, odorless, tasteless, and non-irritating. Initial signs of CO poisoning include vomiting, dizziness, headache, and confusion, which can be mistaken for the flu. More serious complications are loss of consciousness, nerve damage, permanent disability and even death. Essentially CO blocks our body’s ability to absorb oxygen, and thus, has the same effect as suffocation. Potential sources of CO exposure include furnaces, water heaters, and gasoline-powered equipment like generators, snow blowers, and water pumps. The inappropriate use of cooking equipment to heat the house can also cause carbon monoxide exposure. Examples include gas ranges, charcoal grills and camping stoves inside the home. When the weather turns cold it is important to be aware of the risk of CO exposure. Homeowners should have their complete heating systems checked before every heating season. In addition to the furnace, the chimney flue should also be checked for obstructions so that CO has a clear exit from the house when burning wood. To ensure the safety of those in your home, it is essential to have a carbon monoxide detector on every floor of your home and near all bedrooms. For the best prevention, place a detector at least 15 feet from each bedroom. The most effective detectors have battery backup in case of power outages and digital peak concentration readouts. Be sure to check your CO detector’s manufacturer information to see how often to replace the battery. When it is bitter cold, many people let their cars warm up before driving them. Take the extra step to pull your car out of the garage before letting it sit while running. Simply opening the garage door does not create enough ventilation to remove the carbon monoxide from the garage.

Homeowners should have their complete heating systems checked before every heating season. Carbon monoxide is an invisible, odorless, colorless gas created when fuels (such as gasoline, wood, coal, natural gas, propane, oil, and methane) burn incompletely. Heating and cooking equipment that burn fuel are potential sources of carbon monoxide. Vehicles, grills, or generators running in an attached garage can also produce dangerous levels of CO, even if the garage door is open.

Symptoms of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning: can include severe headache, dizziness, confusion, nausea, loss of consciousness and even death. Low levels of exposure can cause sleepiness, shortness of breath, mild nausea, and mild headaches and may have long-term effects on your health. Since many of these symptoms are like those of the flu, food poisoning, or other illnesses, you may not think that carbon monoxide poisoning could be the cause. Often, several members of the same family or those in the same building will complain of similar symptoms. Every home should have at least one working carbon monoxide detector.

Medicine Cabinet: Winter is a good time to clean out the medicine cabinet. Check the expiration dates on all medicines and get rid of expired medicines.

Medication Disposal: Take leftover medications out their original container, put them in a small plastic bag, add a little water, some coffee grounds or kitty litter, seal it and put in a brown bag and throw in the trash. Prescription pain medications (not patches), antidepressants, ADHD/ADD medications are still, best to be flushed down the toilet (after removed from the bottle).

Cough and Cold Season: Fall and winter’s bluster, rain, cold, and snow can mean coughs, flu, and visits to the pharmacy for prescriptions. It is important to be aware of medications and their hazards to children. Approximately 50% of child exposures involve medications, including accidental ingestions and errors when giving medications.

During cold and flu season, remedies are often found on counters or nightstands, which can be tempting to children. These medications may be dangerous if someone swallows too much. Some over the counter and prescription cold medications may also be intentionally used by older kids and teenagers to feel high. It’s important to keep medications, both over the counter and prescription, locked up or well out of the reach of children of all ages.

Accidental exposures in people of all ages may occur with medications. You can prevent taking too much by reading the labels every time before taking medicine and follow directions carefully. Many medications contain identical ingredients, so be careful when taking different medications and do not take more than directed. If you are currently taking other kinds of medications, especially for high blood pressure or depression, you should always check with your physician, pharmacist, or Poison Center before taking any cold remedy. Some medications can affect other medications when they are taken together which could cause serious symptoms.

During cough and cold season, the best strategy for illness prevention is to wash hands often with soap and water. As an alternative, hand sanitizers can be used. Be sure that hand sanitizer air dries completely after applying. Keep hand sanitizers up and out of sight and reach of children just like medications. Hand sanitizers contain a large percentage of alcohol which can be harmful to children if swallowed. Keeping medications out of sight and reach is the single most effective step one can take to prevent poisonings.

Other important safety tips include:

• Do NOT call medicines “candy.”
• Do NOT take medicines in front of children.
• Do NOT share prescription medications.
• Know what you are taking and why.
• Always read the labels before taking medicine (turn on lights and put on glasses).
• Keep a medication record for each person.
• Store medicines safely (up high, out of sight and reach of children).
• Use child resistant lids and packaging when possible.
• Get rid of old, expired and/or left-over medicine.
• Ask questions when unsure – call your doctor, pharmacist, or the Poison Center at 1-800-222-1222.

Winter is a good time to clean out the medicine cabinet. Check the expiration dates and get rid of expired medications or medications you are no longer using. There are several ways to safety dispose of expired and leftover medications:

• Take leftover medications out of their original container, dissolve pills in warm water, add coffee grounds or cat litter and combine in a sealed bag. Dispose of the bag and contents in the trash.
• Medication disposal kits can be purchased over the counter at your local pharmacy. They have a product in them that deactivates medications in a safe way. Some local health departments can also provide disposal kits for free for the community.
• Some medications can be safely flushed down the toilet or sink. Always check the product packaging or call the poison helpline first to make sure flushing is safe.
• To reduce the amount of misused or abused medications, the DEA has worked with local pharmacies to create Drug Take Back Days. Please visit the DEA Collector Site Locator for more information on Drug Take Back Day.

Warm Weather

Lawn Care Products:  Chemicals like pesticides, fertilizers, and other gardening products are very toxic. They require extreme caution while they are being used and when decisions are made about their storage and their disposal. Use protective covering while applying. Always store these products in their original containers in a place where kids and pets are not allowed to go. Always read the labels before using these products and follow directions carefully.

Plants and Mushrooms: There are many native plant species in Ohio that are considered poisonous if exposed to your skin and/or swallowed. It is important to familiarize yourself with plants that are growing in your garden beds, along hiking trails, as well as the plants you keep indoors.  If you have poisonous plants in your garden beds or as indoor plants, label the plants and keep them out of reach of pets and children. There are many toxic mushrooms that grow in the wild, particularly in wooded areas. Toxic mushrooms can look very similar to nontoxic mushrooms and as a result, it is very difficult to differentiate the different types of mushrooms, even for people who feel they are experienced mushroom foragers. Only an experienced mycologist could effectively differentiate between a toxic and nontoxic mushroom. Because it is almost impossible to differentiate a nontoxic mushroom from a toxic mushroom, never eat wild mushrooms.

Spring Cleaning: When storing winter woolens, be aware that mothballs are poisonous and keep them out of the reach of children. Always keep an eye on children when using household cleaners. Most poisonings happen while using everyday products. Be aware of where you leave cleaning products when answering the phone or the door.

Hand Sanitizers: Washing your hands often with soap and water is the best defense against germs! As an alternative, hand sanitizers could be used. Hand sanitizers contain a lot of alcohol which is harmful to children when ingested as they put their hands in their mouth. This product is also highly flammable. People have burned their hands as they were lighting a candle, cigarette or starting a fire/grill right after applying it. Make sure everyone’s hands are air-dried completely after using this product!

Petroleum-Based Products: Petroleum-based products such as gasoline, kerosene, tiki-torch fluid, and charcoal lighter fluid may be very dangerous if swallowed. If swallowed, these fuels can easily get into the lungs instead of going into the stomach. This causes pneumonia and prevents the lungs from absorbing oxygen. Even small amounts of these products in the lungs can be life-threatening or even fatal. It is very important to store petroleum-based products and food in different places and do not put these products into food containers. Torch fluid looks very similar to apple juice and could easily be mistaken if it is not in the original container. Remember to put the child-resistant cap firmly back in place after using torch fuel or other products.

Carbon Monoxide: Carbon monoxide (CO) is appropriately dubbed the “silent killer” because it is invisible, odorless, tasteless, and non-irritating. Initial signs of CO poisoning include vomiting, dizziness, headache, and confusion, which can be mistaken for the flu. More serious complications are loss of consciousness, nerve damage, permanent disability, and even death. With the weather warming up, spring storms can bring tornadoes, thunderstorms, and hail, which could knock down power lines, forcing people to use back-up generators. Back-up generators are often gas-powered which can cause a CO exposure in the home. Other sources of CO that you may come across in the warmer months are gas powered tools like pressure washers and houseboats. To ensure the safety of those in your home, it is essential to have a carbon monoxide detector on every floor of your home and near all bedrooms. For the best prevention, place a detector at least 15 feet from each bedroom. The most effective detectors have battery backup in case of power outages and digital peak concentration readouts. Be sure to check your CO detector’s manufacturer information to see how often to replace the battery. Do not use gas-powered equipment like generators or pressure washers in your home.

Food Safety: It’s grilling time! A lot of outdoor parties include tasty hamburgers, hot dogs, steaks and other foods cooked on the grill. Use food thermometers to make sure that all meat products are cooked to the proper temperature. Use a table cover to protect against crawling critters, and light mesh materials are great to cover things on the picnic table for protection against flying insects.

Store raw meat in the refrigerator until you are ready to grill. Remove the meat 20 minutes before grilling to allow it to come to room temperature. Marinate meat in the refrigerator, not on the countertop. Other grilling safety tips include:

• Trim excess fat from meat to avoid flare-ups.
• Never use cooking sprays around a lit grill.
• Make sure your grill is hot before adding the meat.

Allow about 10 minutes for a gas grill to heat up or about 30 to 40 minutes if you are using charcoal.

Grilling Guidelines:

• Don’t place cooked meat back on the plates or bowls that held the raw meat. For quick cleanup, try covering the plate with foil before placing raw meat on the plate; once the meat is on the grill, remove and discard the foil. You should have a clean plate for serving.
• Boil any leftover marinade that touched raw meat (including what was used for basting) for at least one minute before reusing.
• Use a meat thermometer to make sure that the meat has reached a safe internal temperature. (See “How Hot Should It Be?” below.) Color and feel are not accurate ways to check doneness. Make sure the thermometer isn’t touching any bone, as this could give a false reading.

Please visit the USDA for more information on Safe Minimum Internal Temperatures.