The Gas Safety Trust has published a report that suggests the ageing boiler population in Britain is putting lives at risk from CO poisoning.
The Carbon Monoxide Trends Report provides an account of the trends relating to reportable CO incidents linked to natural gas usage in Great Britain between 1996 and 2010.

Commissioned by The Gas Safety Trust and part-funded by Local Authority Building Control (LABC), the report reveals that older gas appliances pose a greater risk to CO incidents, with more than two thirds of CO incidents reported involved central heating appliances, of which 50 per cent were older central heating boilers. However the report found no such trend in age related incidents with space heaters.

The research also demonstrates the benefits of the introduction of new legislation. Regular non-condensing boilers have featured prominently in the reporting of CO incidents since 1996 whereas incidents involving the new high efficiency condensing boilers have been rare in the last six years.

The report also highlights a worrying trend in terms of standards compliance. Since 1996 there has been a steady increase in the number of installations reported in incidents, found not to comply with standards, suggesting that best practice is not being followed. This has become more apparent since 2001. The most frequent category of defect reported has consistently been ventilation.

The evidence suggests that a greater number of CO incidents have tended to involve appliances for which no service contract is in place - the most frequent cause of incidents established following investigation has been lack of servicing.

Nigel Dumbrell, head of charitable operations for the Gas Safety Trust, said: 'The involvement of older boilers in reportable CO incidents remains an issue. Older boilers can continue to operate safely for a significant time if serviced and maintained regularly. However, the report suggests that such servicing is not being done or that owners are waiting for them to cease operating before replacing them.'

The Gas Safety Trust suggests that an incentive to owners to encourage replacement would increase safety and promoting more efficient energy usage.

The report also highlights that unregistered operatives are still a problem, as the number of incidents reported involving them remains high.

Commenting on the report, Sean Keleher, quality and training manager at Alpha Heating Innovation said: 'The number of installations that do not comply with any standards has risen each year, and this highlights a worrying trend that installers are not using best practice during installations. Although figures are going down, there must be more done to highlight the importance of best practice to installers and to communicate to the consumer how vital it is that anyone working on a gas appliance must be Gas Safe Registered.'

Mr Dumbrell added: 'The effort to reduce and ideally eliminate the practice of unregistered gas operatives should therefore be increased, as this would impact positively on the number of reportable CO incidents'.

To view the report click here.