National Poisons Information Service (Edinburgh Unit), Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH16 4SA, UK.
National Poisons Information Service (Birmingham Unit), City Hospital, Birmingham B18 7QH, UK.
J Public Health (Oxf). 2022 Aug 25;44(3):565-574. doi: 10.1093/pubmed/fdab132.
Unintentional carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning poses a public health challenge. The UK National Poisons Information Service (NPIS) provides advice to healthcare professionals via the online database, TOXBASE®, and a 24-hour telephone line. Our aim was to analyse all CO-related enquiries to the NPIS.
We analysed enquiries regarding unintentional CO exposure (1st July 2015-30th June 2019). Information on patient demographics, CO source and location, clinical features and poisoning severity was collected from telephone enquiries and TOXBASE accesses.
2970 unintentional non-fire-related CO exposures were reported. Exposures occurred commonly in the home (60%) with faulty boilers frequently implicated (27.4%). Although five fatalities were reported, 68.7% of patients experienced no or minor symptoms only (headache most frequently reported). Despite being the gold standard measurement, blood carboxyhaemoglobin concentration was only recorded in 25.6% patients, with no statistically significant correlation with severity.
Unintentional CO exposures in the UK commonly occur in domestic settings and although are generally of low severity, fatalities continue to occur. Carboxyhaemoglobin measurement is important to confirm exposure but further work is required to assess its validity as a prognostic indicator in CO exposure. Public health policy should continue to focus on raising awareness of the dangers of CO.
非故意一氧化碳（CO）中毒对公共健康构成挑战。英国国家毒物信息服务处（NPIS）通过在线数据库 TOXBASE®和 24 小时电话热线为医疗保健专业人员提供咨询。我们的目的是分析 NPIS 接到的所有与 CO 相关的咨询。
我们分析了 2015 年 7 月 1 日至 2019 年 6 月 30 日期间与非故意 CO 暴露相关的咨询。从电话咨询和 TOXBASE 访问中收集了患者人口统计学、CO 来源和位置、临床特征和中毒严重程度的信息。
报告了 2970 例非火灾相关的非故意 CO 暴露。暴露通常发生在家庭中（60%），经常涉及故障锅炉（27.4%）。尽管报告了 5 例死亡，但 68.7%的患者仅出现无或轻微症状（最常报告的是头痛）。尽管血液碳氧血红蛋白浓度是金标准测量方法，但仅在 25.6%的患者中记录，与严重程度无统计学显著相关性。
英国非故意 CO 暴露通常发生在家庭环境中，尽管严重程度通常较低，但仍有死亡事件发生。碳氧血红蛋白测量对于确认暴露很重要，但需要进一步研究来评估其作为 CO 暴露预后指标的有效性。公共卫生政策应继续关注提高对 CO 危害的认识。
