Carbon

Four members of a Northwest Baltimore family, including two children, were hospitalized yesterday after becoming ill from carbon monoxide fumes emanating from their home's basement furnace, said a spokesman for the city Fire Department. Chief Kevin Cartwright said firefighters received a 911 call about 4:20 p.m. from a sickened family member at a home in the 3800 block of Boarman Ave. A woman, her 16-year-old daughter, a toddler and the children's grandmother were removed from the house and given oxygen at the scene by medics, Cartwright said.

Scientists believe they have figured out what caused the most rapid global warming in known geologic history, a cataclysmic temperature spike 55 million years ago driven by concentrations of greenhouse gases hundreds of times higher than today's. The culprit, the researchers reported yesterday in the journal Science, was a series of volcanic eruptions that set off a chain reaction releasing huge quantities of carbon into the atmosphere. The eruptions occurred on the rift between two continental plates as Greenland and Europe separated.

THE INTERNATIONAL agreement on global warming represents an environmental milestone, with the first legal obligations of the industrialized world to reduce heat-trapping fossil fuel emissions.While troublesome details remain to be resolved, and ultimate ratification of the treaty by the more than 150 participating nations is uncertain, the accord gets the world moving in the right direction to address potentially serious climatic change.The United States finally committed itself to a target of 7 percent reduction of greenhouse gases from 1990 levels; other industrialized countries have similar targets under the agreement that was two years in the making.

FireWestminster: Firefighters responded at 5: 46 p.m. Monday to a wash detail on Route 140 at Englar Road. Units were out 30 minutes.Westminster: Firefighters responded at 4: 32 p.m. Monday to a carbon monoxide alarm in the 100 block of Hollow Rock Ave. Units were out 27 minutes.Westminster: Firefighters responded at 10: 28 a.m. Monday to a carbon monoxide alarm in the 200 block of Sullivan Road. Units were out 34 minutes.Westminster: Firefighters from Reese, Gamber, Hampstead and Reisterstown in Baltimore County assisted Westminster at 8: 49 a.m. Monday, responding to an electrical fire in the 200 block of Memorial Drive.

Sixty cases of targets were reported stolen Wednesday from a private shooting club near Sykesville, according to state police in Westminster.Locks were cut on three storage sheds at the Carroll County Gun Club at 120 W. Liberty Road, according to the report. The thieves used bolt-cutters to enter, then ransacked the sheds, stealing 48 cases of orange targets and 12 cases of white targets.The loss was estimated at $440.FireGamber: Firefighters responded at 6: 38 p.m. Sunday to a woods fire in the 2500 block of Durness Drive.

FireGamber: Firefighters from Reese assisted Gamber at 1: 37 a.m. Monday, responding for a carbon monoxide alarm in the 1900 block of Deer Park Road. Units were out 23 minutes.Sykesville: Firefighters responded at 12: 59 a.m. Sunday for a carbon monoxide alarm on Piney Ridge Drive. Units were out 25 minutes.Sykesville: Firefighters responded at 7: 45 a.m. Saturday for TC report of a fire in the 7500 block of Main St. Units were out 18 minutes.Sykesville: Firefighters responded at 10: 17 a.m. Saturday for a wash detail in the 7100 block of Macbeth Way. Units were out one hour.

A Westminster mother and daughter were flown to Maryland Shock Trauma Center after they were overcome by carbon monoxide fumes in their sleep early yesterday,fire officials said.Francisca Clarke, 22, and her daughter, Bethany Wilcox, 3, were in good condition at the Baltimore hospital yesterday, a spokeswoman said.Firefighters found the victims about 5: 30 a.m. after responding to an alarm at an apartment in the first block of W. Main St., said Lt. Jay Wallace, a spokesman for Westminster Fire Engine & Hose Co. No. 1.Firefighters detected abnormally high levels of carbon monoxide.

Three residents of an apartment above a Westminster restaurant were hospitalized yesterday after power tools used in an unventilated area apparently sent carbon monoxide levels soaring.Denise Roberts, her infant son, Stephen, and her 3-year-old son, Michael, remained in stable condition yesterday at Carroll County General Hospital, a hospital spokeswoman said.The incident began about 10:30 a.m. when Mrs. Roberts called 911 after smelling smoke, police said.Officials from the county Health Department and the Maryland Occupation, Safety and Health Administration are investigating and will determine when renovations may resume, said Lt. Dean Brewer of the Westminster Police Department.

The race had been long and hard, but for defending Winston Cup champion Jeff Gordon and a number of other drivers, it was made tougher than it needed to be by the carbon monoxide taken into their bodies during the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway."

Maryland Occupational Safety and Health officials finished yesterday an investigation of a carbon monoxide incident that displaced 16 people from the apartments above Johansson's restaurant early Sunday in Westminster.It will be a few weeks before official results of the investigation are available, but firefighters and health officials said yesterday that a propane gas heater caused the problem, which sent all 16 residents to Carroll County General Hospital about 1:30 a.m. Sunday.Officials said residents called 911 when they began to feel ill Saturday night.

Carbon monoxide poisoning killed three members of the Wiley family in July 2005 after the colorless, odorless gas built up to astronomical levels in their Eastern Baltimore County rental home in the Cove Village complex, apparently as a result of faulty installation of the unit's furnace or other appliances. It's not so surprising, then, that immediately after Cove Village management installed carbon monoxide detectors in all the other homes in the complex that firefighters got a string of false alarms from nervous residents.

More than four years after Norman Wiley and his two stepdaughters died of carbon monoxide poisoning in their Cove Village townhouse, life in the hard-edged Essex complex is still haunted by the deadly, invisible gas. The carbon monoxide alarms continue, despite scores of inspections and repairs aimed at eradicating the deadly threat. Since the Wiley family deaths in July 2005, emergency crews have responded to more than 180 carbon monoxide-related calls in Cove Village, according to county records, earning the 299-home rental community a dubious reputation among firefighters and building code enforcers.

Carbon monoxide detected at troubled townhouse complex 2 Baltimore county firefighters detected dangerous carbon monoxide levels late Monday in a unit at Cove Village Townhomes, a community that has been beset by carbon monoxide leaks. It was the 31st call this year from Cove Village about carbon monoxide. Elise Armacost, a Fire Department spokeswoman, said firefighters detected levels of 40 parts per million in the home. The department recommends evacuation at levels of 100 ppm, and considers it a "medical alert" at 35 ppm. The latest alert came when a mother of two called authorities to say that her carbon monoxide detector had gone off while she was cooking and that she felt ill. The 299-unit complex owned by Sawyer Realty Holdings has a history of carbon monoxide problems.

There's no reason to leave your environmental ethic behind when you go to the beach. There are simple ways to take care of the sand and surf that don't require a lot of work. If you need some help thinking about what you can do before you go, while you're there and when you're heading out, here are some suggestions: Find eco-friendly accommodations. : Green hotels and B&Bs will do things such as recycle, collect rainwater, use low-flow toilets and alternative energy and use recycled materials in their decorations and uniforms.

WASHINGTON - -Congress will return Monday ready to engage in a historic debate on whether the country should shift to cleaner and more efficient use of energy and reduce the heat-trapping gases building up in the atmosphere. Before leaving for Memorial Day, the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved a bill that would set the country's first mandatory limits on greenhouse gases, promote renewable energy and increase the efficiency of buildings, appliances and vehicles. The bill now will be considered by other committees and should reach the floor of the House of Representatives for a vote this summer.

Increase human services staff now The staffing crisis at human services offices is urgent. Food stamps and other benefits that people need for survival are being delayed weeks and weeks, or are being erroneously denied. Applicants are required to produce the same documentation over and over because it gets lost. Economists say it will be at least a year before employment levels recover; we need to provide these benefits in a timely and dignified manner. Governor O'Malley should demand that DHR staff up to meet the increased volume of work.

Jennis Roy Galloway, a retired Union Carbide Corp. executive and decorated World War II veteran, died of cancer May 1 at Mandrin Hospice House in Harwood. He was 94. Mr. Galloway was born in Baltimore and raised on Lyndhurst Avenue. He was a 1932 graduate of Forest Park High School. After earning a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the Johns Hopkins University in 1937, he went to work for National Carbon Co., a division of Union Carbide. Mr. Galloway was sent to the Dutch East Indies, where he was plant manager of the company's Eveready battery plant in Batavia.

There are three things Marylanders should know about global climate change: 1) The threat is real. 2) Time is of the essence. 3) We can do something about it. It will be important to keep those core principles in mind this month as the House Energy and Commerce Committee begins marking up the American Clean Energy and Security Act, legislation that could finally commit the nation to an energy strategy that will address global warming. That's because the debate in Congress is likely to devolve into something depressingly familiar, a mindless partisan squabble over taxes versus green jobs.

Now that the president and most Americans want national action on global warming, how do we pick the best legislation for reducing carbon pollution? There are three critical tests. First, is the climate policy simple? Second, is it fair? And third, is it built to last? Congress needs to adopt a statutory "cap" on greenhouse gas pollution as soon as possible. Let's agree that the nation's total carbon pollution will peak in 2012 and then get smaller each year - by law - until it's drastically reduced by 2020 and almost gone by 2050.

One disappointment in a presidential race seemingly lowering the bar of expectations by the day is the lack of conversation about climate change. Even with the financial crisis and the war in Iraq, there are few more pressing issues, not only because of how disastrous global warming will be for the nation's - and world's - economy, health, security and environment but also because we're running out of time to do much about it. Fortunately, whichever candidate...