Carbon monoxide poisoning symptoms
from multiple low level exposures
(chronic CO poisoning)

Very helpful summary. My former office was situated above an underground parking garage. I experienced low level auto exhaust exposure for approximately 8 months. At first I was not aware I was being exposed; then I was assured that the level was too low to matter. Then I began experiencing some of the symptoms you list. Inspection revealed holes communicating between my office and the garage below, as well as measurable VOC's in my office. My CO detector never went off. Since the landlord just denied the problem, refused to plug the holes or do anything, and would not release me from my lease, I simply moved my office to the conference room of a hotel across the street.
Finally, the landlord (Marc Realty) sought to refinance the building and required an affidavit from each tenant that the premises were in excellent condition.
So they finally let me out of my lease.

I suspect a close friend of mine is experiencing the effects of long term chronic exposure to CO. She has virtually all the symptoms listed on this website and more. I am interested in whether anyone has ever reported dental pain as a symptom of either short term or long term exposure to CO. She has begun to develop skin rashes.

This month, I became very ill and had severe pain in my head, neck, jaw, frontal neck bone, chest, arms, and hands. My feet also stopped being able to stay warm even with the heater on. My family was having cold type symtoms and even our dog had developed ragged and raspy breathing. After being in the hospital for a day and a half and eventually coming home feeling quite well considering how badly I felt with the severe pain and vomitting, I was home for 24 hours and began to experience the same symtoms all over again and realized that something in this house was making me ill and I suspected everyone else. I told my husband that I was shutting down the heater and at first we suspected toxic mold. But my husband tore into the area that we suspected and found no mold issues in the walls or shower area. So, I now suspect as my doctors have leaned towards that it may be CO exposure on a low level that has been longterm. We had a brand new central heat and air system replaced 8 years ago by a professional who knows my husband, but we both now know that it is indeed something in our home that is causing the problem as all have cleared up, including our dog's breathing. We still have major fatigue problems. But there is no longer any air coming through our ventilation system and we are roughing it with a cold house until we find out. We bought a CO detector, but I am too afraid to turn the heater back on to test it and would prefer that PG&E come out to test it and pay them to enter our attic and test for that. I was too ill and the pain caused me to cry out loudyly for many many hours when it reached the point of making me unable to walk or even sit upright at all. My mood has also been majorly affected, but I assumed that was only due to my bipolar, ect. illness. But I had also been experiencing memory loss and unable to frequently recall names of close friends, phone numbers, even my own medical record number, ect. That was unusual for me and for quite some time..years...I have been unable to focus or concentrate on reading, ect., focus my eyesight and losing my balance and with dizziness and profuse sweating that worsened with even slight exertion. I have felt ill for quite some time, but I have several medical problems and immune issues that I blamed those on and now suspect that possibly exposure longterm to CO was actually making my illnesses worse or being blamed on those illnesses instead of properly blaming my symptoms on either CO exposure or something else in the house. But by seeing the symtoms of longterm CO exposure, which I have had all of, and seeing my family clear up after shutting down our heater, I do suspect CO exposure on a low level that gradually increased so severely in my system that caused the severe illness and other issues. I sleep directly under a vent while the rest of my family in the house uses a C-PAP machine, air purifiers, and fans. They were still ill, but not to the extent I got. But my dog who does sleep with me was having bad issues that I assumed that he was simply ill and going to die. I am glad to have read this and what others have experienced because I now have more of a focus on what the problem is and will immediately call to have the heater tested. Our water heater is in the garage, so we do not think that is it and it is not connected in any way to the ventilation system in our home. Thanks and I hope that anyone else experiencing these types of symptoms will not question themselves too much and will have their home tested immediately. I know that it can kill and make you suffer severely now.

Well, we've lived in our house for over 5 years and based on what I'm researching, it looks like we've been getting sick every "heating season" due to CO poisoning. The symptoms apparently get worse over time, which is why, after 5 years, my wife is really sick this year. She has been sick for the past 1-2 months with a chronic headache, flu-like symptoms, and most recently vomitting. My kids have also been sick on and off, but we thought it was the normal sick season. My tinnittus has been really bad lately and although I haven't been "foggy", have been really "off" with my behavior/personality.

Tonight I researched this stuff cuz my wife has been sick too much and we can't explain it. It's odd to get the same stomach flu type virus 2 times in less than a month. And although we've been passing another flu-type virus around (I assume the flu since we had fevers.), I imagine that our systems are weakened by the CO.

OK...so I checked our CO detector randomly over the past few years and it always said 150-180 ppm. I thought it odd, but checked the back and it says, "Calibrated to 200 ppm for 90 mins, Audible alarm at 100ppm for 35mins". I never really new what that meant so I figured, "well, it's not going off with the alarm so it's probably in the normal range."
NOW I FIND OUT THAT ANYTHING ABOVE 35ppm IS DANGEROUS!!! This has been going on for years!!! We have 3 young children and God only knows what effect this has had on our lives, health, relationships, motivation, productivity, moods, etc.
Since it's midnight, I will be checking the detectors until morning and then calling the Non-emergency fire dept. phone line for them to come check the CO levels in the house.
Looks like we may be getting into further debt to replace the furnace and water heater if needed. Those and the clothes dryer are the only 3 things that burn gas to run so it's gotta be one of them. My guess is the furnace which is probably 10+ years old.
Good luck to everyone. I hope we clear the haze and rise to better overall health and wellbeing by fixing this.

Add chest pain to the list of symptoms for chronic low level exposure.

That's what I suffered for a whole year due to a gas wall heater!

I just retired after a career at the Canadian Coast Guard.

I was exposed to low levels many times over the years and have so so so many carbon monoxide related "sad" days.

Mum was in her 70\'s, but I was shocked about how badly affected her long term memory had suddenly become over a period of 6 months. Important events from years ago had totally disappeared. If it had been dementia, I would have expected her short term memory to be mainly affected, but the long term to have been relatively OK. I discussed it with the GP who agreed that her pattern was unusual. My mother refused to go to the doctor because she thought this was all part of the \'normal aging process\'.
A few weeks later my father for some reason got the gas fires and cooker checked by the Gas Board. Both the fire and the grill (on the cooker) in the kitchenette were condemned, all due to CO. They were all replaced.
Gradually over a period of months I observed that my mother\'s memory for recent current events was slightly improving. She seemed brighter and more confident. However the long term memory of those specific important events remained lost.
I think it took about eighteen months before I felt the gradual improvement had levelled off. She never returned to her previous \'healthy\' level of short and long term memories.

I was renting a garage apartment when I was in my early 20's. I noticed while I was living there that a. there was the faint smell of gas coming from the kitchen...and b. Whenever I was at my house I felt sort of groggy and spaced-out, and when I came home, I felt like passing out, and that I had a hard time waking up..As a result, I spent a lot of time away from my apartment. Eventually I "wised up" to the fact that I might have an issue, and I contacted the gas company. It turned out I had a somewhat "major" leak in the space where a heater in the bathroom had once been, and also, there was monoxde coming from the oven.
I have had mild autistic traits since I was a child, but I wonder if a lot of my neuro and memory issues were exacerbated by my bout of exposure. I am medicated for ADD and anxiety, but the meds don't do a whole lot of good...

I am currently renting a new apartment with gas heating. I am in the midst of experiencing a "monoxide scare" as my smoke alarm keeps going off when it shouldn't and also, I have been having headaches, mood problems, heavy-chestedness and so-on...in addition to trouble getting out of bed in the morning...The mood problems have been such that I have been feeling somewhat "crazy".
It is kind of depressing.

I feel I have been a victim of low level CO Poisoning. This has included the symptoms of long durations of acute diarrhea. All of the before mentioned symptoms are included at some point of time throughout the cold season months. When I was brought to the ER for the first time, they treated me as a drug overdose victim of my own doing!

Since then, I've developed chronic IBS. The symptoms of low level constant CO poisoning has always persisted. Low on income because of lost work and stuck in this place. Any help to change this situation?????

Please contact w/ any info @ mcguirejms@yahoo.com

I ONLY WISH I NEW SOMEONE THAT WOULD HAVE TESTED THE SCHOOL BUS I WAS DRIVING BEFOR I WAS DAMAGED. I CANT TELL YOU HOW CRAZY IT CAN EFFECT A PERSONS INTIRER LIFE. I WANTED TO END MY LIFE SO MANY TIMES, I CANNOT FUNCTION THE SAME AS I DID BEFORE. I DONT HAVE MY LIFE ANYMORE. I CAN NOT DO HALF THE THINGS I COULD IN A DAY BEFORE I WAS POISONED. FINDING WORDS TO TELL YOU MY STORY, TO LATE TO LONG. DAMAGE IS DONE TO LATE FINDING THE PROBLEM WITH THE SCHOOL BUS.

I\'m not sure how long I was affected by CO but over the past few months it is if I have awoken from a haze. I have come to realize my behaviour was off, easily becoming agitated, reactive and odd. I cringe at the mistakes I have made over the past year and wish I had realized it was my old truck that was causing it. I had no idea.

The more I drove, the worse my behaviour was and the more people didn\'t want me around. I started school about an hour drive from home which is when things started to go downhill gradually until I could barely walk, was short on breath and had trouble with focus. A drive to a doctor which got worse the closer I got to the office to a point where my hands tingled, my legs were ice-cold, I was short-breathed and I became delirious. Falling on the walls of the office barely able to stand, I mentioned to this new doctor that I, \"was in bad shape\". He immediately called emergency and I was taken to hospital. They thought I was having a heart attack. On oxygen for the full day I slowly got better. Tests showed phosphorus & oxygen was very low, and my system was stressed. The doctors had no idea what had caused the system problems.

Upon driving home I got a bit sick again and attempted to figure it out. \"Why did I get more ill the closer I got to the doctor\'s office?\" I bought a battery CO monitor and had it in the truck for a short drive and the numbers were 266-283ppm. I had found my answer and a hole in the door hing to the engine compartment leaked the co directly into the cab of the truck.

I have lost my schooling, job, friends, etc as a result of this and, although I figured out what was causing it, the damage is done. Short-term memory problems became apparent while going to school and in reading correspondence for the past year - I was definitely not myself. My kidney\'s are still struggling along and my immune system is shot. The depression, frustration, anguish, anxiety and regret circle around me as the picture gradually became clear as I recover. Or have I? I had no idea that this was happening and it has cost me dearly. Any hint of exhaust fumes makes me ill and I\'m hesitant to drive anything. I seem to have a daily headache that follows me everywhere. I wish I had checked the exhaust system properly.

my ex bought me a car an older toyota. every time i drive it i smell exhaust fumes inside the car. Now I'm having health issues and I'm wondering if there is a connection

whilst bing poisoned by car exhaust 3 years ago unknown one of symptoms was bright red face like i had high bp and excessive sweating this led to exzema on my face in the same butterfly distribution pattern as lupus all stages of exzema tried antibiotics cremes ointments skin went like leather led to my already hermit co induced habit worsening took 3years after co in car diagnosed now any allergin triggers it

i smelled fumes and ifelt difficulty breathing sat near to window where outside male running car engine for prolonged period my daughter who had just been to hospital for eye problems lives here and is subjected to this daily and worryingly told me she has the feeling someone is watching her at night i have just read this is a symtom since this exposure i have had pain and twitching left eye pain in left lung and feeling paniky and at first a taste of metal in my mouth my daughter has been seeming spaced and confused both of us already fatigue not first time exposed so at first thought flu then mental health then after yrs a gas engineer found a y shaped cut behind gas fire letting in fumes so after having to give up job thencollege course getting divorced a real cause found i returned to work

Over last winter and this winter I have been exposed to low levels of CO poisoining because if my masonry stove without knowing it. I discovered this last month. I have most of these symptoms including constant headache, nausea, problems focusing, mood swings, irritability, shallow breathing, anxiety attacks, intolerance of loud noise, lack of concentration, difficulties in expressing myself, cold hands, skin lesions

I learned that I was poisoned over several years. I had most of the symptoms listed here but also had weird skins rashes.

Is that related to CO? Has anyone else got them?