'COAL GAS CAN KILL PEOPLE', SAYS CAMPERS

  • 02/02/2022

Kuwait City: Dr. Salem Al-Ayyad, an internal medicine specialist at Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital, said that as part of his work at the police station, he receives many cases of people suffering from symptoms of inhaling gas emitted from various types of coal – coal that people use to keep themselves warm while sleeping. According to doctors in public hospitals, incidences of carbon monoxide poisoning have recently grown as a result of inhaling coal odours inside camps, rest houses, and even residences, resulting in a number of cases requiring admission to intensive care units. Al-Ayyad stated that there are days when more than 5 cases are received by one police station, often of relatives from one house, or friends on a road trip, and sometimes male and female domestic workers in homes, indicating that the severity of the cases varies, and that some of them come good, while the majority are transferred to ICUs and some are transferred to wards. 


Al-Ayyad stated that the most common symptoms of gas suffocation are shortness of breath, headache, dizziness, nausea, and abdominal pain, noting that some cases result in death. Dr. Al-Ayyad added that cases abound throughout the winter season in particular, emphasising the need of ensuring that coal is transformed into embers before entering closed locations in the best interest of everyone's health. Carbon monoxide is a colourless, odourless, and tasteless gas. It rises when gasoline, wood, coal, or other fuels are burned, and tightly closed spaces are among the first places where lethal levels of carbon monoxide collect.

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