They tell me it's non toxic...
May 14, 2013 7:28 PM Subscribe
I had a small natural gas leak in my home for 9 days. No one seem alarmed except me. Put my anxiety to rest?
I'm particularly concerned because I had experienced some major fatigue (waking up very tired in the mornings) in the last few days leading up to the confirmation of this leak. I had also had a couple of migraines, which was highly unusual and I was having trouble identifying any other normal triggers. I only started feeling those symptoms when the windows were closed for a couple of days. Earlier in the week we'd had much nicer weather and the windows were wide open.
The fire department and gas company don't seem alarmed at the severity of the leak- in fact the fire department missed it on their first inspection and we had to call them back in. I don't think it was clear to anyone investigating just how long the leak had existed until my husband reminded me of that we'd recently had a pipe replaced along with other work in the house. My husband was told the gas is non toxic, but I'm a bit anxious considering I know I wasn't feeling normal for days. I'm slow moving in the morning regularly, but I felt especially slow.
Is this related at all? Should I be bringing this up with my doctor when I see him next week? Are my kids ok?
I'm finding this whole situation a bit difficult to handle because my known history of anxiety caused me to ignore my gut instinct in the first place, and also affected my ability to assert myself with the fire department on their first visit. I thought, "I must be wrong about this, we would have blown up by now.", I apologised for potentially "wasting" the fire departments time, etc.
Clearly my anxiety is a factor here, but tell me. Is a minor natural gas leak actually safe to breath for so long? Could my migraines and fatigue be related?
I'm particularly concerned because I had experienced some major fatigue (waking up very tired in the mornings) in the last few days leading up to the confirmation of this leak. I had also had a couple of migraines, which was highly unusual and I was having trouble identifying any other normal triggers. I only started feeling those symptoms when the windows were closed for a couple of days. Earlier in the week we'd had much nicer weather and the windows were wide open.
The fire department and gas company don't seem alarmed at the severity of the leak- in fact the fire department missed it on their first inspection and we had to call them back in. I don't think it was clear to anyone investigating just how long the leak had existed until my husband reminded me of that we'd recently had a pipe replaced along with other work in the house. My husband was told the gas is non toxic, but I'm a bit anxious considering I know I wasn't feeling normal for days. I'm slow moving in the morning regularly, but I felt especially slow.
Is this related at all? Should I be bringing this up with my doctor when I see him next week? Are my kids ok?
I'm finding this whole situation a bit difficult to handle because my known history of anxiety caused me to ignore my gut instinct in the first place, and also affected my ability to assert myself with the fire department on their first visit. I thought, "I must be wrong about this, we would have blown up by now.", I apologised for potentially "wasting" the fire departments time, etc.
Clearly my anxiety is a factor here, but tell me. Is a minor natural gas leak actually safe to breath for so long? Could my migraines and fatigue be related?
Apparently it's really hard to tell from random internet resources what symptoms are possible from what levels of exposure. My sense is that it's plausible that you might feel ill in a few different ways, but that you should expect no long term consequences.
If you want a really definitive answer, for your specific situation, my suggestion would be to call your local poison control center. Their whole job is to know how to respond and what to expect when people have been exposed to all sorts of different chemicals.
And I can't think of any reason not to bring it up with your doctor, if you're seeing him anyway.
posted by aubilenon at 7:44 PM on May 14, 2013
If you want a really definitive answer, for your specific situation, my suggestion would be to call your local poison control center. Their whole job is to know how to respond and what to expect when people have been exposed to all sorts of different chemicals.
And I can't think of any reason not to bring it up with your doctor, if you're seeing him anyway.
posted by aubilenon at 7:44 PM on May 14, 2013
This link to a prior question might help. A gas leak doesn't necessarily mean carbon monoxide (in most cases it should not).
posted by treehorn+bunny at 7:46 PM on May 14, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by treehorn+bunny at 7:46 PM on May 14, 2013 [3 favorites]
Independent of this incident, but to give you peace of mind going forward, buy a carbon monoxide detector for your house, which is under $40, looks like a smoke alarm and runs on batteries. Every house should have one anyway.
posted by LobsterMitten at 7:52 PM on May 14, 2013 [11 favorites]
posted by LobsterMitten at 7:52 PM on May 14, 2013 [11 favorites]
The odorant that they put in natural gas can be irritating, I understand (methyl mercaptan if the internet tells me correctly). Similar compounds (in my labwork) give me headaches and nausea when I incorrectly use them outside a fume hood. I couldn't say how my dose compares with what you get from the gas odorant.
posted by Tandem Affinity at 8:00 PM on May 14, 2013
posted by Tandem Affinity at 8:00 PM on May 14, 2013
It's weird that everyone seems so casual about this. I've always been told that a gas leak means carbon monoxide
Nooo, that hasn't been the case in a very long time. In the very old days, prior to "natural gas", the gas piped into homes did in fact contain carbon monoxide. This is where the old meme of sticking one's head in the oven to commit suicide comes from - the idea was that the carbon monoxide would asphyxiate you.
Modern natural gas (and propane) does not contain carbon monoxide. If you didn't smell the odorant, you were not exposed to any meaningful/harmful level of natural gas.
posted by Juffo-Wup at 8:33 PM on May 14, 2013 [7 favorites]
Nooo, that hasn't been the case in a very long time. In the very old days, prior to "natural gas", the gas piped into homes did in fact contain carbon monoxide. This is where the old meme of sticking one's head in the oven to commit suicide comes from - the idea was that the carbon monoxide would asphyxiate you.
Modern natural gas (and propane) does not contain carbon monoxide. If you didn't smell the odorant, you were not exposed to any meaningful/harmful level of natural gas.
posted by Juffo-Wup at 8:33 PM on May 14, 2013 [7 favorites]
treehorn+bunny's link and Juffo-Wup cover it, but the takeaway is that what we call natural gas is refined to contain almost entirely methane, plus methyl or ethyl mercaptan, the odorant mentioned above. It does not contain carbon monoxide.
The confusion about carbon monoxide comes from two sources.
First, people confuse it with "town gas" (also known as coal gas), which was the major gaseous fuel until middle of the last century. Town gas was an unrefined mix of hydrocarbons plus carbon monoxide, oxygen and carbon dioxide made by distilling coal. When Sylvia Plath committed suicide by sticking her head in the oven with the pilot light out, it was the carbon monoxide in the town gas that killed her.
Second, when natural gas is burned in an oxygen-poor environment, like a malfunctioning water heater or furnace, or a heater in a closed room, some of the product is carbon monoxide (one carbon atom and one oxygen atom) instead of carbon dioxide (one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms), because there isn't enough oxygen to make 100% carbon dioxide. This is why we have carbon monoxide detectors.
posted by pullayup at 8:35 PM on May 14, 2013 [4 favorites]
The confusion about carbon monoxide comes from two sources.
First, people confuse it with "town gas" (also known as coal gas), which was the major gaseous fuel until middle of the last century. Town gas was an unrefined mix of hydrocarbons plus carbon monoxide, oxygen and carbon dioxide made by distilling coal. When Sylvia Plath committed suicide by sticking her head in the oven with the pilot light out, it was the carbon monoxide in the town gas that killed her.
Second, when natural gas is burned in an oxygen-poor environment, like a malfunctioning water heater or furnace, or a heater in a closed room, some of the product is carbon monoxide (one carbon atom and one oxygen atom) instead of carbon dioxide (one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms), because there isn't enough oxygen to make 100% carbon dioxide. This is why we have carbon monoxide detectors.
posted by pullayup at 8:35 PM on May 14, 2013 [4 favorites]
Best answer: The mercaptan odorants are really smelly; you can smell them in tiny amounts, which is why they're used for this purpose. If you couldn't smell the gas, even when you were standing near the leaky pipe, you were only exposed to a really really tiny amount of it. On the other hand, migraine triggers are weird, so who knows; maybe you're really sensitive to mercaptans.
Do you have a carbon monoxide detector in your house / in your bedroom? If you don't, I recommend getting one. They're inexpensive— a little more expensive than a smoke detector IIRC— and could save your bacon if something does go wrong with your gas-fired appliances. I'm guessing that if you had a malfunctioning heater or something the fire department would have noticed when they inspected, and so your headaches probably weren't from CO poisoning. But having a monoxide detector helps me sleep better at night, and I don't even have anxiety problems.
posted by hattifattener at 9:43 PM on May 14, 2013 [3 favorites]
Do you have a carbon monoxide detector in your house / in your bedroom? If you don't, I recommend getting one. They're inexpensive— a little more expensive than a smoke detector IIRC— and could save your bacon if something does go wrong with your gas-fired appliances. I'm guessing that if you had a malfunctioning heater or something the fire department would have noticed when they inspected, and so your headaches probably weren't from CO poisoning. But having a monoxide detector helps me sleep better at night, and I don't even have anxiety problems.
posted by hattifattener at 9:43 PM on May 14, 2013 [3 favorites]
Best answer: Seconding the "if it didn't smell chokingly awful, you weren't exposed to all that much" opinion. That doesn't deny that you had symptoms, since you obviously did, but that there will be no long term damage. If there was any measurable difference in the oxygen level in your house, it was the equivalent of sleeping with the covers over your head in a stuffy room.
posted by gjc at 2:46 AM on May 15, 2013
posted by gjc at 2:46 AM on May 15, 2013
I once thought I was feeling sick because of a gas leak. It turns out that there was no gas leak and my feelings of sickness were most likely psychosomatic.
posted by jazh at 2:53 AM on May 15, 2013
posted by jazh at 2:53 AM on May 15, 2013
I once took a sublet on the lower east side for 3 months. There was a gas leak the whole time. I just cracked the window. I'm still alive. YRMV.
posted by segatakai at 6:22 AM on May 15, 2013
posted by segatakai at 6:22 AM on May 15, 2013
To expand on the CO alarm suggestion, you can get alarms that detect both CO and combustible gas and give you different alarms for each if present in sufficient quantities. A CO detector is a good idea. The combustible gas feature is primarily for your peace of mind. If it is in your living space you will probably smell something before the detector alarms, and well before explosive levels are reached. (source PDF)
Both Propane and Natural Gas are colorless and odorless. For safetyposted by rocketpup at 6:36 AM on May 15, 2013 [1 favorite]
reasons, an ordorant (Mercaptan) is added so that any leak can be
detected by smell. The common detection threshold for smelling the
Gases is around 20% of the lower explosion limit (LEL). This can
vary greatly depending on the individuals sense of smell and how
long they have been exposed to it. The LEL of each of these gases
defines the bottom range of flammability for the Gas. Your
Nighthawk is calibrated to alarm before 25% of the LEL of either Gas
detected. Therefore, it is possible that you may smell Gas before
the alarm is activated.
As someone who had a small natural gas leak for several years, I might be able to give you my two cents.
I doubt there's any real amount of CO from the leak (if there were CO in your house, it would likely come from malfunctioning gas appliances with insufficient oxygen flow)
Towngas (the destructive distillation of coal) some commentators above mention has been out of use for many years now.
What might be causing your distress might be hydrogen sulphide (H2S) that is commonly found in natural gas.
I would suggest calling your natural gas supplier and/or whoever made those pipe repairs, and in the meantime it is obviously important to keep windows open at all times to let the gases escape.
posted by magic_skyjuice at 8:32 PM on July 24, 2013
I doubt there's any real amount of CO from the leak (if there were CO in your house, it would likely come from malfunctioning gas appliances with insufficient oxygen flow)
Towngas (the destructive distillation of coal) some commentators above mention has been out of use for many years now.
What might be causing your distress might be hydrogen sulphide (H2S) that is commonly found in natural gas.
I would suggest calling your natural gas supplier and/or whoever made those pipe repairs, and in the meantime it is obviously important to keep windows open at all times to let the gases escape.
posted by magic_skyjuice at 8:32 PM on July 24, 2013
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posted by chickenmagazine at 7:41 PM on May 14, 2013 [2 favorites]