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http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/...s_N.htm?csp=34
Beware carbon monoxide poisoning from houseboat generators
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A Coast Guard advisory warns house boat operators of the dangers of carbon monoxide build-up following several cases of carbon monoxide poisoning.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) Twenty-one people on houseboats for a family gathering at Lake Powell were treated for carbon-monoxide poisoning, just a few days after a 7-year-old girl drowned when she was overcome by carbon monoxide fumes, officials said.
The odorless gas came from exhaust from generators that were used to run air conditioners, said Marianne Karraker, a spokeswoman for Glen Canyon National Recreation Area on the Utah-Arizona border.
In addition to the 21 people from Utah, Texas and Washington state who were treated July 10, three others had been treated in a separate but similar incident earlier that week, and a child, Megan Evans, of Flagstaff, Ariz., died after she and a friend were exposed to fumes while swimming near boats along the Lake Powell shore. The other child survived.
"It's hot out there, but I would tell people to turn off those generators and open all the windows," Karraker said. "It's playing with fire to have the generators running like that."
A Coast Guard advisory on boating safety warns that boat operators should turn off "gasoline-powered generators with transom exhaust ports when the swim platform on the stern is in use," because of the potential for carbon monoxide to build up.
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"The common practice of keeping generators running to power air conditioning, entertainment centers and electronic suites while moored or anchored has exacerbated the problem," the Coast Guard alert said.
Details at http://www.uscgboating.org/alerts/alertsview.aspx?id8.
