Carbon monoxide (CO) is not responsible for many mining fatalities. A significant reason is that there are miners and operators looking for CO and protecting against it in the mines. Off the job, the sources of CO around the house are the furnace and any other combustion source. Vehicles are a potentially lethal source of CO, both at home and at mines. Two CO deaths involving two cultures and vehicles 7,000 miles apart deserve some attention. From Japan: Dr Motoki Osawa, in a 2003 Supplement to Legal Medicine, reports a fatality from CO in a vehicle in an open field. It is fairly common for CO fatalities to occur in vehicles in garages. So, when Osawa was confronted with a suspected CO fatality in an open field, he was determined to investigate the circumstances, do an autopsy on the victim and examine the vehicle. The sequence of events, vehicle examination and reconstruction disclosed that, after leaving a party, the victim went to his car, started the engine and "took a rest." Ingestion of alcohol at a company party, earlier, may have precipitated the rest. A door and a window were partly open, but that combination was not enough to compensate for a broken exhaust pipe and a chink in the floor-mounted emergency brake apparatus.
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