Posted By Linda Crossland-Clarke Hi An employee has claimed that her employers mobile office (coverted library van) is giving her carbon monoxide poisoning. The van was converted a year ago and had the necessary checks before commissioning. A generator runs to keep the van warm, illuminated etc whilst it is in use. I have had no complaints off any other staff. I have had some checks done with a carbon monoxide detector (basic one from DIY store) with no positive readings. Can any one else suggest further tests or other gases I should be looking for? Thanks Linda. SHE really doesn't know in this case!

Posted By P Williams Linda, contact your Environmental Health Department, they will have specialist instantaneous reading equipment that will give you an immediate answer. They may have one with a data logger that can be left with the vehicle all day which should at least confirm or eliminate carbon monoxide as the cause.

Posted By Linda Crossland-Clarke Hi Paul Symptoms are.. in her words, "racing heart, severe headache, dizziness, nausea, tingling tongue, light headedness and a feeling of wowwy - like I was on drugs". Regards Linda

Posted By David Kinnison Linda Hi. For once we not talking about NVQs. The cheapie monitor/alarm for carbon monoxide (CO) is a sufficient warning device and, on the whole, sensitive enough. We employ the CO alarms (purchased in the local hardware store) in laboratories. A carbon monide analyser with a date logger would provide continous readings which later could be characterised to check for any trends or correlations (i.e. work times). I would expect others in the mobile office to experience similar symptoms. A contributory cause could be reduced ventilation. Difficult to tell without observing the actual site layout and conditions. I suppose windows are closed to reduce genrator noise and potential fumes. It is interesting that the employee suggests 'carbon monoxide poisoning'. Her symptoms may be easily be explained by another cause. Yours Dave K

Posted By Merv Newman Linda, I really cant understand your last comment "SHE really doesn't know". I take this to mean that you have put the question to your SHE person and they have come back with the answer "dunno". If that is the case then I would evaluate that person as a total incompetent. When we do not have the answer our only permitted response is "I'll find out and get back to you today. Promise". Actually, the way I have always worked in these situations is "Sit down beside me and we'll have a look for the answer together" Re our e-mails, there is an awful lot of info available on the web. A few minutes digging, maybe with a bit of boolean thrown in, and you usually find what you want. Example : yesterday my wife wanted info on some music : "Canticle de saint jean des racines". Within five minutes we found an MP3 recording to download, for free. Now she's singing ! (actually, it starts off quite boring, but they work up to really giving it some welly) and no, I wont give the web site. Find it for yourselves. 5 CPD points for the first to come up with the name of the choir.

Posted By Linda Crossland-Clarke Hi folks Thanks for all your suggestions. The office was taken off the road, and staff relocated to a warmer place. It has now been serviced and given a clean bill of health. Hopefully the reintroduction of the mobile office in warmer weather will be a none event. Linda.

Posted By Jeff Watt Linda CO2 is a big issue in breweries and behaves closely enough to CO for this story to work. A german colleague told me of attending an emergency call out in his brewery. A CO2 alarm had sounded in an underground lager (German word for store- every day's a school day). Guys were piling out to the open air, vomiting, passing out had the shakes. My colleague and his team suited up in SCBA got their detectors and entered the lager. They found no CO2 present, they found no oxygen depletion, they found no other dangerous gases. What they did find was a battery operated CO2 alarm that was beeping because it's battery was nearly done. The fear of suffocation had made the operators exhibit the symptoms of CO2 poisoning. They checked out physically OK. Purely physcho-somatic response. Linda, as a last resort you may need to consider that your colleague may be suffering some other illness or possibly no illness at all.