Laniado Hospital School of Nursing is currently launching a
special information campaign to prevent carbon monoxide
poisoning caused by incorrect use of gas home heating
systems.
School of Nursing Director Penina Binkowitz reports that
according to her information, 90% of the victims of such
poisoning are from the chareidi community. "Instances of gas
poisoning, some of which result in death, are especially
widespread in a number of Jerusalem neighborhoods," she
notes.
Rambam Hospital Pressure Unit ward personnel relate that they
are only too familiar with the sight of an entire chareidi
family suffering from gas poisoning and being transferred to
Rambam's pressure unit for treatment. These accidents, they
stress, are caused by improperly installed heating units and
insufficiently ventilated homes.
Commissioner Shalom Tzarum, head of the Criminal
Identification Unit in the Police Department laboratories,
told Yated Ne'eman that while information campaigns
launched among the public at large have resulted in a
considerable drop in the frequency of gas poisoning, the
chareidi community has received very little information about
the problem, and a significant amount of gas poisoning cases
occur in this sector of society.
"This type of poisoning is caused mainly by careless
installation and faulty maintenance of the Junkers-type
heating systems, and is especially widespread in Jerusalem
and the North," Tzarum said.
