Again the death because of carbon monoxide and no one is to blame

The winter is over, and the weather getting warmer. It seemed that with the end of the heating season, we would forget about the mortality from carbon monoxide until the next winter. But three days ago poisoned from the products of combustion, Eyub Kerimov, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Themis, died. Today came a terrible information about the death of the Sumgayit family. Six people, among them children, died in a dream, poisoned with carbon monoxide. The family lived in the basement.

Carbon monoxide takes lives with frustrating persistence, despite the assurances of the Azerigaz PA about timely and regular inspections of the security situation in private houses (apartments) and enterprises. In December 2017, two people were poisoned and died in Baku, in February of this year a woman died in Baku. In winter of 2017 in the settlement of Khirdalan, five girls died from gas. In the first two months of 2016 in Azerbaijan, carbon monoxide poisoned 75 people, 42 of whom died from poisoning. In the first ten days of March, carbon monoxide poisoned six people, four of whom died. The head of the Republican Center for Toxicology, Azer Maksudov, says that 250-255 people turn to the Center every year because of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Gas workers accuse the population of the failure to comply with the safety rules for the use of gas appliances. Controllers from "Azerigaz" demand to take out gas heaters, "combi" type, outside their homes and apartments, and categorically prohibit the use of self-made water heaters of samovar type, as well as Iranian and artisan gas furnaces. But people continue to use such devices. Why? The question is rhetorical, we know how they demand and after what procedure the inspectors leave ...

The most interesting thing is that in the official list of prohibited activities proposed to the attention of the population in the Azerigaz website, nothing is said about the ban on the use of "combi". The actual absence of such a ban (despite the assurances of controllers) is in line with international practice. It is enough to see the sites of world manufacturers "combi" and make sure that these devices are installed abroad in residential premises, and this does not lead to death of people. In the end, we use gas burners in the kitchen, even without a chimney, and do not die!

Independent experts see a threat to the safety of citizens' lives not in the use of "combi" and other certified appliances within the premises, but in the non-standard nature of the household gas supplied to the population. The head of the Association of Free Consumers, Eyub Huseynov, says that the population receives raw or poorly purified, low-calorie gas, and in order to get heat people open the crane as much as possible. Together with the gas non-standard admixtures burn, leading to the death of citizens. According to the chairman of the Association of Engineers and Energy Professionals of Azerbaijan, Rasul Suleymanov, most often the reason for such consequences is the mismatch of technology standards.

"Among the devices on the market there are many low-quality goods, the manufacturers of which indicate the size of a certain diameter on the box, but in reality the possibilities of the heating device are completely different. Gas devices, such as, for example, Iranian, certainly do not withstand our gas. Heavy and uncleaned gas clogs the chimney of the furnace in bad combustion, as a result of which carbon monoxide is released," he said.

Azerigaz representatives deny accusations of giving non-standard gas to the population, although social networks are full of people's messages, especially Sumgayit people, that low-calorie gas is not able to bring to a boil an ordinary teapot and therefore people have to wake up earlier to give their children breakfast before school starts.

The dispute between the population and gas workers, between representatives of "Azerigaz" and independent experts has been going on for many years, but there is no main thing: no effective measures are taken, the state organization issues the problem "on brakes". This is evident from the endlessness of deaths from the shock gas.