Monoxide

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.

The company that wants to build a liquefied natural gas facility on Sparrows Point has filed a complaint against Baltimore County and Maryland Critical Area Commission, contending that authorities improperly approved a county law prohibiting LNG and other such facilities from being built in environmentally sensitive coastal areas. According to a written statement by AES Corp. officials, the complaint was filed in Baltimore County Circuit Court yesterday. The commission, charged with overseeing development and land-use policy in coastal and watershed areas, approved a county measure last month that adds LNG terminals to a list of facilities not allowed in its coastal areas.

A 20-year-old Virginia woman staying at a friend's home in Annapolis died of carbon monoxide poisoning early yesterday after her friend's mother left a car running overnight in an attached garage, city police said.Four others -- the woman's friend, Douglas Hickman Jr., 22, his sister Emily, 20, and their parents, Douglas Sr. and Ann, both 50, -- were sickened from the noxious fumes that filled the townhouse in the first block of Chesapeake Landing Way, said Annapolis police spokesman Officer Eric Crane.

CARBON monoxide deaths are considered freakish because they don't occur as often as such misfortunes as fatal fires or car crashes. Nonetheless, hundreds of people die each year when the colorless, odorless gas, emitted by autos or faulty heating systems, prevents their blood from carrying oxygen.A sad reminder of the hazard came Monday when 20-year-old Bryn E. Parry, of Alexandria, Va., died while asleep in the home of a friend in Annapolis' Eastport section. The friend's mother accidentally left her automobile running in the attached garage, beside the room where Ms. Parry slept.

Information about possible pollutants that was not included in Lehigh Portland Cement Co.'s permit application led the Environmental Protection Agency to order work stopped on a new kiln at the company's plant in Union Bridge, an EPA spokesman said.The action came as Lehigh prepared to pour the foundation for the kiln this month, said David H. Roush, plant manager at Union Bridge, who vigorously disagreed with the federal agency's allegation and said the company may take legal action.The federal Clean Air Act requires that factories file information about three significant air pollutants -- carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and soot -- and outline pollution-control measures before they build.

ALL IT TAKES is a few chilly nights to remind us that it won't be long before freezing temperatures move in for winter. So, before the wind chill heads into negative figures, now is the time to think about winterizing your house.The first thing to do is shut off exterior hose bibs. This is surprisingly easy to forget. Turn the faucet off on the inside and open it up on the outside. This will allow the water to drain out of the pipe and prevent it from freezing and possibly breaking the pipe.

Political leaders and union workers shared their views at a public hearing last night on the proposed expansion of Lehigh Portland Cement Co. in Union Bridge.About 60 people attended the Maryland Department of the Environment hearing at the Union Bridge Community Center. The department has given tentative approval for three air quality permits for the plant, but a series of public hearings are required before the permits are issued.Most of the questions at the hearing came from union members concerned about their jobs.

The angry cries of suburban new-home buyers -- including those who belatedly discovered noisy highways next door or methane seeping into basements -- are prompting a spate of consumer-protection bills in the General Assembly.Legislators from Cockeysville to Columbia to Pasadena are pushing bills that would regulate homebuilders, force disclosure of environmental hazards, require carbon monoxide detectors in new homes and compel real estate agents to tell buyers to check local master plans.

Believe it or not, the quality of air in the mid-Atlantic region is getting better, mostly because of reductions in carbon monoxide emissions from automobiles.A three-year University of Maryland study published in today's issue of Geophysical Research Letters shows carbon monoxide (CO) -- one ingredient in the noxious stew of chemicals known as ozone -- dropping 23 percent over the past 10 years. That suggests other pollutants are dropping as well, said Bruce Doddridge, a research scientist in UM's department of meteorology and one of the authors of the study.

The angry cries of suburban new-home buyers -- including those who belatedly discovered noisy highways next door or methane seeping into basements -- are prompting a spate of consumer-protection bills in the General Assembly.Legislators from Cockeysville to Columbia to Pasadena are pushing bills that would regulate homebuilders, force disclosure of environmental hazards, require carbon monoxide detectors in new homes and compel real estate agents to tell buyers to check local master plans.

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.

The Annapolis Police Department headquarters was evacuated Wednesday and two of its employees remained sick Thursday after a potentially deadly gas was drawn into the building, which is under renovation. Carbon monoxide sickened many people in the building, including the receptionist, who appeared to have been rendered unconscious by the gas, said Maj. Scott Baker of the Annapolis police. Two people, both of whom work near air vents, were treated at Anne Arundel Medical Center and released, but had not returned to work Thursday, Baker said.

Ten people were rushed to a hospital Thursday and treated for symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning after abnormally high levels of the gas were detected in a Rosedale warehouse. About 60 employees at the two-story, 155,000-square-foot Case Mason packing warehouse at 9101 Yellow Brick Road were evacuated before noon after the carbon monoxide alarm went off, said Elise Armacost, a Baltimore County Fire Department spokeswoman. An adjoining business also was evacuated. The 10 people taken to Franklin Square Hospital Center all exhibited minor or moderate symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, Armacost said.

Water limits for city and county lifted after repairs 2 Mandatory curbs on outdoor water use in the northwestern sections of Baltimore City and Baltimore County have been lifted after the completion of water main repairs. A voluntary ban on filling pools, washing cars and watering lawns was imposed July 16 when heat and dry weather increased the demand for water just as utility crews took a key 54-inch water main out of service for preventive maintenance. The ban became mandatory the next day as the water in storage tanks continued to drop.

In what they called "an abundance of caution," the owners of a Northeast Baltimore apartment building in which nine people were sickened by a carbon monoxide leak said Monday that they would replace water heaters in four of the complex's 803 units. Sawyer Realty Holdings LLC issued a statement saying the Sunday leak at the Dutch Village Townhomes appeared to have come from a faulty water heater in a vacant unit. The carbon-monoxide detector in that unit went off and alerted tenants in a neighboring apartment.

City woman gets year for assault on son's teacher A Baltimore Circuit Court judge sentenced the mother of a city elementary school student this weeek to one year in prison for a November assault on her son's teacher, which was witnessed by a class of at least 20 students. Prosecutors said Lakia Farmer, 30, hit a Matthew A. Henson Elementary School teacher in the face with an unknown object - most likely a cell phone - about 8:30 a.m. at the school. Other teachers arrived in the classroom to find the victim pinned to the floor and Farmer pulling her hair.

Managers of an Essex townhouse community troubled by carbon monoxide leaks say the complex should be rid of the dangerous gas by week's end, after stoves are adjusted. Baltimore County officials and firefighters set up a temporary command center at the Cove Village complex Tuesday, and workers will spend two days investigating what they say are faulty stoves in several of the 299 units. Officials say the management company has agreed to replace gas stoves with electric models over time.

Simple safety measures could avoid dangerous accidents in the home, city health officials reminded parents after several recent incidents that injured children. Olivia Farrow, interim health commissioner, joined forces with the Baltimore City Fire Department and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to review injury prevention tips Friday - just hours after a local carbon monoxide incident and the day after a 9-year-old boy fell from a third-story window in West Baltimore.