For the public, the winter months gives rise to a variety of challenges and problems not encountered during any other season of the year. For employers who run factories, warehouses, or jobsites, winter presents certain hazards that may threaten the overall safety of their employees if not understood and taken seriously, which includes the ever- present danger of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning. In the United States, more than 400 people die and over 50,000 require medical attention annually due to CO poisoning.
Providing minimal comfort heat in enclosed spaces for construction personnel so that work may continue during the cold weather months may prompt employers to use supplemental heating sources. Factories and warehouses with closed windows and doors during the winter also have reduced ventilation also are at risk as employers supplement their main boilers and furnaces with portable heaters. These may include those that burn fossil fuels such as kerosene, propane, wood, coal, oil, gasoline, and natural gas, all of which have the potential to create CO as a by-product of fuel consumption.
Carbon monoxide gas is generated when the carbon element that is common to each of these fuel sources is not completely burned due to an insufficient quantity of oxygen. This phenomenon is known as “incomplete combustion”. Many common workplace appliances, vehicles, and equipment may be the source of incomplete combustion if not properly maintained. These may include the following:
Gasoline, diesel or propane powered forklifts
Gas water heaters
Small, portable gasoline powered engines and generators
Vehicle exhausts
Charcoal grills
Gas furnaces
Propane and kerosene heaters
Coal-burning furnaces
Humans are adversely affected when exposed to CO because the gas displaces the oxygen being carried by the red blood cells in the victim’s body. Major organs such as the heart and brain are no longer able to function properly, resulting in sickness or even death. With proper immediate medical treatment, however, the effects may be reversed but acute (severe and rapid onset) poisoning, even after recovery, may cause permanent damage to these vital organs.
Persons exposed to CO may experience some of the following symptoms:
Dizziness
Nausea
Fatigue
Drowsiness
Headache
Chest tightness
Vomiting, confusion, or collapse (generally as a result of prolonged exposure)
Preventing CO poisoning the workplace requires employers to use administrative controls that include the following:
Properly maintain fuel-burning appliances and equipment to help reduce CO production
Ventilate or extract CO from work areas, especially those that are small or confined
Replace fuel burning equipment, if possible, with equipment using electricity, batteries, solar power, or some other non-fossil fuel
Install CO detectors in every confined or poorly ventilated space
Distribute personal CO monitors to employees working in or around an area where the gas may accumulate
Incorporate CO awareness training in the company safety program, including work situations where the gas might become concentrated and how to identify co-workers who are being poisoned
Require employees to use self-contained breathing apparatus or respirators when entering confined spaces that may have high levels of CO
Maintaining a healthful work environment includes preventing employees from being exposed to deadly carbon monoxide gas. CO sickness is avoidable and, when employers understand what conditions create it and take steps to protect workers using detection, ventilation and appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE), the winter months will be as safe as the other months of the year.
Year-to-date decline in injuries comes even as building boom continues

Injuries on construction sites decreased from 657 in the first ten months of 2018 to 483 through October of this year, a decline of 26.5 percent. DOB issued 16,322 permits for major construction projects from January through October 2018, versus 16,291 such projects permitted in the same period in 2019. (Major projects are new buildings, major alterations of existing buildings, and demolitions.
The decrease in injuries comes after the launch of DOB’s Construction Safety Compliance (CSC) Unit, dedicated to conducting proactive, unannounced inspections of major construction sites citywide. The improvement also coincides with the implementation of Local Law 196 of 2017, which requires safety training for workers at New York City’s larger construction sites. CSC is in the process of inspecting roughly 6,000 sites to enforce the law and check whether construction workers have the required training.
Since the unit’s inception in September 2018, CSC personnel have conducted 20,166 proactive inspections at 10,256 construction sites, issuing 2,523 stop-work orders and 11,484 OATH summonses, which carry penalties of nearly $15 million for safety lapses on job sites in the five boroughs

Please direct any questions or concerns to:
The Safety Division at Hamond Safety Management
Anthony Vacchio, [email protected] 516-762-4224