Safeguard family from fire, carbon monoxide with routine maintenance, cleaning
By AMY NEFF ROTH
healthy living

Don't let a house of health horrors ruin your winter holidays.

A little maintenance and cleaning now can go a long way toward keeping your home snug and safe this winter, experts say.

Consider a few of the health hazards that could haunt your winter: furnaces, space heaters, fireplaces, candles, hot showers, beds, Christmas lights, Fido, Fluffy and the kids. Happy holidays!

These and many other things in the average home can pose such threats as carbon monoxide, fire, germs, or dust mites, mold, pet dander and other allergens.

Is home sweet home really more dangerous in the winter? In a word, yes.
Take fires. There are more of them in the winter, says Chief Fire Marshall Raymond Beck of the Utica Fire Department. People cook inside more in the winter, they heat their homes and they decorate for the holidays, all of which can start fires, Beck said.

The statistics

Last winter - between November 2004 and April 31, 2005, - there were 27 residential fires in Utica, he said. Electric space heaters started two of them. (Kerosene heaters are illegal within the city limits.) Unattended cooking caused four more.

Another five fires were caused by electrical problems, at least one by an overloaded circuit in a house with lots of Christmas lights, Beck said. And candles started two fires, one in a bedroom.

Of the remaining fires in Utica last winter, improperly disposed cigarettes caused nine, four were accidental fires and the cause of one is undetermined.

Beck also deals with another wintertime hazard: carbon monoxide, a deadly gas produced when fuel is burned. In the winter, homes are sealed up and furnaces, fireplaces, heaters and woodstoves burn fuel, leading to an increase in carbon
monoxide calls, he said.

Last year, firefighters returning from a call saw black smoke pouring from a chimney on James Street, Beck said. They investigated and discovered a high concentration of carbon monoxide. They evacuated the building, possibly saving lives, Beck said.

Allergy sufferers beware

For allergy sufferers, winter can be the worst season of all, said allergist Dr. Porus Dhabhar of Slocum-Dickson Medical Group in New Hartford.

In fact, spending winter in a sealed-up home with pets sleeping in on the couch or carpet, dust mites ravaging flakes of human skin in the sheets, forced-air heat blowing dust around, fireplaces and wood-stoves spewing smoke and mold thriving in unventilated bathrooms and poorly leaned humidifiers can wreak havoc on the health of asthma and allergy sufferers, experts say.

Even all the winterization homeowners do to keep their homes snug and toasty all winter can undermine their health if they go overboard. "You do like to have a little air exchange so you don't have a buildup of things," said Dr. Lee Edmonds, a pulmonologist with Bassett Healthcare in Cooperstown.

Edmonds was referring to allergens and other indoor air pollutants, but carbon monoxide also can build up in oversealed homes, according to safety experts.
Older houses and homes with kids running in and out are unlikely to suffer from overwinterizing, Edmonds said. If inner windows steam up, then they might be a little tight, he added.

Preventive measures

The key to taming these winter health horrors often lies in routine maintenance and preventive measures: having chimneys cleaned; having fuel-burning appliances checked annually; changing furnace filters; vacuuming; dusting; enclosing mattresses, box springs and pillows in allergen-and-dust-free covers; and installing smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and fire extinguishers.
Some fixes are a little more painful. For example, Dhabhar had one suggestion for those allergic to pet dander. "If they are severe allergies … the best place for the cat is the neighbor's house," he said.

Both Dhabhar and Edmonds talked about one lifestyle fix that could make a huge difference year round - giving up cigarettes. If you must smoke, go outside "for the sake of the children and the other non-smokers in the house," Dhabhar said, noting that children are much more prone to ear infections if their parents smoke.
Edmonds also suggested some old-fashioned, but very effective, measures:
washing hands properly and often and throwing tissues into the trash.
And if you do get sick, he said, stay home so you don't spread your home health horrors to the office.