Bring fuel-burning room heaters under ambit of safety norms

Before going to sleep on a biting cold winter night of January 7 last year, a young couple in Sitapur district of Uttar Pradesh switched on their liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)-fired room heater to keep themselves and their two children — aged three and two — warm. Neither they, nor the children, woke up from sleep the next morning. A month prior to that, another couple from the state’s Sambhal district met a similar fate when the duo was found dead and their four-month-old baby unconscious. They had also used an LPG room heater at night. The cause of death in both cases was carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning.

Such tragedies from unvented gas-fired room heaters are not restricted to Uttar Pradesh. One can see reports of such deaths in different parts of northern India during the cold winter months every year. In villages, towns and cities that are prone to long power outages in winter, gas-based room heaters are preferred over electric room heaters, not just in homes but also hotels.

In states that get heavy snowfall, power supply is often disrupted for long periods as power transformers malfunction and power transmission lines snap. So much so that today, a large variety of these unvented gas-fired room heaters are available in markets, both online and offline. However, in the absence of mandatory quality controls as well as consumer education on the risks involved in the use of these heaters, these are contributing to avoidable tragedies.

Unvented fuel-burning space heaters or portable room heaters that work on gas, kerosene or coal pose the risk of CO poisoning, when used in enclosed spaces or in rooms with inadequate ventilation. The problem can be further exacerbated if these heaters are of poor quality. When LPG, for example, burns, it produces carbon dioxide (CO2) and water vapour, besides pollutants like nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide. However, the amount of CO produced depends on the quality and efficiency of the heater — a good-quality product manufactured with stringent quality and safety standards will release CO within the permissible levels.

However, this does not mean that a good quality heater is safe because there is another factor that determines safety — availability of oxygen for combustion. Whenever a carbon fuel burns efficiently and completely, each carbon atom in the fuel binds with two atoms of oxygen in the air and releases carbon dioxide. In the absence of adequate oxygen, however, the carbon atom in the fuel binds with only one oxygen atom (incomplete combustion) and produces CO. Thus, these heaters should always be operated in a room with adequate ventilation. Or else, the heater begins to utilise the oxygen available in the room for combustion, and when that depletes, it begins to release the poisonous CO, a product of incomplete combustion.

The other problem is that CO is an odourless, tasteless, non-irritant gas and consumers do not even realise that they have been exposed to the killer gas. Low to medium levels of CO inhalation can lead to fatigue, dizziness, nausea, headache, vomiting and difficulty in breathing, besides reduced brain function. Higher levels can impair brain functioning and physical coordination, preventing any chance of moving to a safer area. The killer effect is from the fact that CO binds with the haemoglobin in our blood, displacing the oxygen carried by the haemoglobin. Without oxygen, the body’s cells and tissues begin to die.

So, electric heaters that comply with mandatory ISI standards are comparatively safer but that choice is not available to consumers who live in extremely cold climates and do not always have 24×7 power supply. We need to have mandatory quality standards for these gas heaters, with built-in safety features such as ‘oxygen depletion sensors’ that cut off fuel supply to the heater and shut it down if the level of oxygen in the room goes below the safe level. In normal air, the concentration of oxygen is 21 per cent by volume and concentrations below 19.5 per cent are considered oxygen deficient. The WHO has set limits for CO exposure and CO alarms based on it should also become mandatory.

Electric room heaters cannot be sold without the mandatory ISI mark, issued by the Bureau of Indian Standards. But, unfortunately, there is no such safety stipulation for these fuel-burning heaters. This must be addressed urgently, and these heaters must be brought under mandatory quality and safety certification without delay. Meanwhile, manufacturers as well as the government should educate consumers on the need to use these heaters only in well-ventilated spaces and never to sleep leaving the heater on, besides using CO alarms.