I was talking to an HVAC technician who was a friend of my dad’s.
I told him we had a gas furnace that was getting older, and asked what the probability of our getting carbon monoxide in our house was.
He looked at me like there was something wrong with me. He told me that in order to have carbon monoxide poison in the house, he had to have a cracked heat exchanger. As long as the heat exchanger was in good condition, there was little likelihood of there being carbon monoxide. I asked him what had to happen for formaldehyde to get into the house. He told me the heat exchanger was where all the off gasses usually came from, but you could get formaldehyde and carbon monoxide from an oil furnace, a coal furnace, or any heating source under the right conditions. I asked him if he had ever seen someone with carbon monoxide poisoning. He told me he had seen one once, and then he turned his full attention on me. He asked why I had so many questions, and I asked him to follow me. My neighbor’s door wasn’t totally shut, and he was sitting in his chair. The HVAC technician told me to call an ambulance and then the fire company. He went in and dragged the man outside. His face was an odd shade of red, and the HVAC technician told me that is what someone with carbon monoxide poisoning looks like. Luckily, our neighbor is okay, but he needed a new furnace for the house.