A Silent Killer in the House
Posted on September 20, 2007
Filed Under Personal, Worldview |
I couldn’t sleep Wednesday night. Something kept waking me up, but I couldn’t tell what it was. In the back of my sleepy mind, it seemed like it was a chirping noise. But I would awake, hear nothing, and then drift off to sleep, only to be awakened again. The only sound I could hear was the air coming through the heat vents. The nights have started to get cold in Colorado, so our furnace has just recently kicked in after a long summer snooze.
But there was something in the sound of that heated air rushing into our room that began to gnaw at me. What was it? Sometimes the expansion of the heating ducts makes noise, but I was sure that wasn’t the sound that kept waking me up. I admit that I am a very light sleeper and almost anything will rouse me, but there was something different about this.
It worried me.
I suppose it was the Lord that impressed me to get up and walk down to the lower level and into the furnace room. I opened the door, turned on the light and stood there, not even knowing what I was looking for. And then my eyes began to sting.
Carbon monoxide!
I looked at the vent pipe running from the furnace and my burning eyes fixed on a large hole in the side. 
I walked over, put my hands on the pipe and it came crashing down, one end corroded completely through. Just the slight pressure of my hand was all that was needed to make the last connecting piece crumble.
Well, I’ll try not to bore you with the whole story, but I stayed home the next day and dedicated myself to fixing this mess. I’m proud to tell you that it only took two trips to Home Depot, which may be a record for me. Usually my self-help projects require at least three before I am done.
I have never attempted this kind of work before, so I was rather excited about figuring it out. I ran into one problem. Metal ductwork comes with one end “crimped” so that it can slide into a non-crimped end. If this doesn’t make sense, picture trying to make one long drinking straw out of two. You would have trouble getting one end of one straw into the other unless you could somehow taper it. The crimping does this. However, as I was cutting up the ductwork, I ran into the problem of having several non-crimped ends that I had to fit together.
So, I found an old axe handle, used the radial arm saw to cut a slot along one end, and then took a hammer and my wood splitting wedge and crimped the ends myself.
(Does any body care about this?)
I was actually quite happy with how it turned out. My make-shift “crimping” allowed me to slip the two duct ends together quite nicely.
Well, here is the finished product. Shiny new and safe again.
The chirping? I don’t know. Was it one of my fire alarms? I have a carbon monoxide alarm, but it didn’t utter a peep the whole time.
Carbon monoxide, CO, is a killer… a silent killer. It is a deadly poison that is color-less, odor-less, and taste-less. Around 500 people die every year from CO poisoning; around 2,000 use it to commit suicide annually. Short of killing, long-term build-up can cause minor to severe neurological problems.
Well, my experience motivates me to offer you two applications:
1. Physical: Check your furnace and any other carbon-burning source in your home. Get a GOOD CO alarm. Don’t run your car in the garage other than departing or arriving. Keep in mind that CO is a poison and treat it with respect.
2. Spiritual: Check the other sources in your home that can emit color-less, odor-less, and taste-less poison…spiritual poison. Possible sources are: televisions, DVDs, VCRs, iPods, radios, MP3 players, internet, magazines, etc. Don’t be fooled. These sources can emit good things, but it only takes a click of a remote or a few keystrokes or a turn of the dial to produce poison that can harm you or you family in ways much more serious that CO. It seeps into your mind and heart and brings forth destruction. You’ve got to be on guard against it. My personal opinion: your child’s headphones can keep you from monitoring the health of their atmosphere; computers and televisions in their rooms behind closed doors are like corroded vent pipes and very dangerous. The very best alarm is parental vigilance.
How you protect yourself is a little trickier. One suggestion: ask God to give you a sensitivity that will ring an alarm in your conscience.
It kind of a “chirping” sound.
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10 Responses to “A Silent Killer in the House”
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Dr. Del Tackett is president of the Focus on the Family Institute and Senior Vice President to Focus on the Family. He is also the architect and chief spokesperson for Focus on the Family's The Truth Project--a nationwide initiative designed to bring the Christian worldview to the body of Christ.
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Dr. Tackett, I should not read that entry, so early in the morning. Reading the last paragraph, I still thought we were talking about CO and was incredibly worried about my DVD player emitting it. Regardless, you’re right.
That’s why I’m resolved, “No TV or Computer” in kid’s room will be definitely be a policy when the Lord blesses my wife with children some day.
God sometimes speaks to us in a whisper. The whisper can wake us up at night! In your case a chirp. By the way - Good Job.
Just wanted to let you know that you have at least one person that was interested, but then I’m a bit of a handyman nut. By the way, I like the bungee cord. You may want to change that to a metal strap.
Your point on spiritual poison is right on the mark. Parents wouldn’t dream of putting all of the inappropriate material that is available over TV and internet in their child’s bedroom if it was in book or magazine form. Would any parent line half their child’s book shelf with pornography? But because it is electronic and out of site out of mind it becomes okay.
Put the TV’s and the computers in a public area of the house for you and your child’s sake. No one is immune from being tempted.
Del -
Praise the Lord that you and your wife are OK! I must say, your home seems to be quite the center of excitement…chipmunks, hail storms, ant highways, and now carbon monoxide on the loose (well, not anymore). I love hearing about your latest adventures. Keep them coming.
By the way, our church launched the Truth Project last Sunday and I just cannot fully describe to you how the Holy Spirit moved in my group. There were 18 of us, of varying ages, and it wound up being the 12 year old who almost brought us to tears during discussion time. To see God working on the heart and mind of our youth is one of the many blessings He has poured on us through the Truth Project…and that’s just from Tour 1. I can’t wait for this Sunday.
Keep Loving Him!
Mike
One of my favorite things about this blog, Dr. Tackett, is that you share not only the in-depth, “make you think”, spiritually convicting things for your readers to chew on, but you also share the personal and humorous adventures from your everyday life. What a joy and a privilege it is to learn from your life. I have learned many things including: the Trinity, God’s sovereignty, Eastern religion, Apologetics, God’s creative designs, and the importance of family. Along with those important things I have also learned how to chase chipmunks out of my house, how to better study the behavior of ants and other animals, how to defeat a pebble in my shoe, and how to protect my home from Carbon Monoxide.
The list goes on and on, but what I would really like to tell you is that I really appreciate you taking all of your readers along with you. I have learned so much! Thank you!
Nice work with the venting, may I suggest also taping the seams with foil tape (also called silver tape) to make sure no CO leaks out from the seams. Interesting analogy to “spiritual CO”
As old fashioned as it sounds, and not that long ago by the way, my sister and I were raised without a televison and just a radio that stayed on Christian broadcasting 24/7. The closeness our family had because of quality time together and the relationship with the Lord that was exemplied through our parents during those years is priceless. It is amazing how the most common things around us play havoc on our thought life.
Great job on your project! My husband’s projects land us in the emergency room every time, but the pleasure he gets from the accomplishment is worth it all!
You are correct! We need to be careful not to allow poison into our homes through “electronic means.” That is what we call all the DVD’s, TV, game systems, etc., in our home.
How does one protect their family from subtle lies mixed with truth in christian articles, books, etc., in today’s society? For example, our kids were told at church (one we no longer attend) to “repeat a word over and over until your mind becomes silent, thereby silencing your mind” in order to “become one with yourself and God.” This church also said you couldn’t deepen in your relationship with God if you didn’t practice the spiritual disciplines put forth by Richard Foster.
We love your “Truth Project” and would like to hear your thoughts in a blog on the new and upcoming contemplative spirituality, spiritual disciplines, and lectio divina that seems to be taking the Christian world by storm.
The Love’s
Wow! I am glad that you heard the chirp!!!!!!
We once had a CO detector,but couldn’t figure out where to put it when the instructions said it couldn’t be near a bathroom and shouldn’t be near some other place -possibly windows. We couldn’t figure where in our small house to put it! We ended up returning it! We do get our furnace inspected yearly.Anyone have ideas on where to put a CO detector in a small house(ranch style)?
I replaced the two hard wired smoke detectors in my house with Combination Carbon Monoxide / Smoke Detectors that have rechargeable battery back-ups. The original units in my house were hard wired, meaning they always had power and required no batteries, however one of the downfalls of this is that when the power goes out so do the detectors. In addition to hard wired detectors (at least one on every floor) I would also recommend at least one battery operated version on each floor as well as a security measure.