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Gas boiler story raised serious issues (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)
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Gas boiler story raised serious issues
3:55pm Friday 29th January 2010
CONGRATULATIONS to the Standard on publishing an article about the unsafe boiler in the home of Mrs Doidge (January 14).
Was there a landlord's gas safety certificate? If not then the landlady should be prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive.
However, even assuming there was a gas safety certificate we have found this is no guarantee of safety because a certificate is not a service.
Katie Overton, aged 11 years, died of CO in 2003, a few days after the gas safety certificate ran out and it was obvious from what was read out in court, that the boiler hadn't been serviced for years.
Therefore, we have been lobbying to change the landlord's gas safety certificate to a service or require testing of the combustion gasses and recording of those gasses.
Carbon Monoxide (CO) can be emitted from any faulty cooking or heating appliance powered by any fuel that burns (eg coal, gas, petrol, oil, wood etc.).
CO cannot be sensed using human senses (of smell, taste, hearing, touch or sight).
Therefore it is totally illogical to rely on a visual check for CO. There may be a yellow flame indicating CO or there may be soot but there may not be and yet the appliance can be lethal.
Less than 2 per cent of CO can kill in between one-three minutes.
Please ask your local MP to join our campaign.
We are holding a prize giving for our schools poster competition at the House of Lords on January 26 and launching our next competition.
Meanwhile do ask the Doidge family to get in touch with us and we may be able to help them.
Please ask your readers to visit our website www.co-gassafety.co.uk for more information and to make sure they know how to keep safe from the silent killer this winter.
STEPHANIE TROTTER (MRS) President & Director of CO-Gas Safety www.co-gassafety.co.uk Lorien Common Lane Claygate Surrey KT10 0HY Editor's note. We understand that a gas safety certificate had been issued in July, 2009.
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