Nine people from an IT company in downtown Toulon were transported to Sainte-Musse Hospital early Monday afternoon after complaining of headaches. The intervention of firefighters equipped with carbon monoxide detectors made it possible to confirm the envisaged hypothesis of” gas poisoning. It seems that this carbon monoxide comes from poor combustion of a gas heater.
“The important thing is to quickly get the victims out when the symptoms appear.“recalls Captain Olivier Pécot. The people were taken care of to be seen by a doctor and receive oxygen.
The Regional Health Agency that during the previous heating period, “53 episodes of CO poisoning occurring by accident and involving 196 people were reported in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, including 2 deaths. Since 2006, the surveillance began, each year, around 200 to 250 people have been poisoned in the Paca region and an average of around 100 deaths are recorded in France.“.
The symptoms that should alert are headaches, fatigue, mental confusion, nausea. The severity of the poisoning depends on the intensity of the exposure, the individual susceptibility (newborn, child) and the prior state of health of the exposed individual (cardiovascular and pulmonary history).