Real World Applications
Here are just some of the ways Airspace Monitors are keeping our customers protected:
- Emergency Response and Mitigation (See our Emergency Response Brochure on our resources page)
- CO and Gas alarm response
- EMS Monitoring for every call
- Rehab and Overhaul
- Command Post Monitoring
- Protection during investigations
- Police response hazard protection
- Industry - Protection from CO
- Used in educational, institutional, grocery, and retail industries
- Environmental monitoring during operation of gas/propane powered tools (See our brief on Gas and Propane Powered Tools)
- Equipment Sales & Rental industry (See our brief on Rental Tools)
The following are comments we’ve received from customers who have been using our monitors for several years:
“We were one of the first departments in this area to put a CO monitor with every medical first response team. That was over five years ago and I can’t imagine operating without that safety today.
We like the simplicity, automation and low cost of the Airspace monitors.”
From an Assistant Chief.
“We’re a small department and the Airspace monitors have been workhorses for us. We use them to respond to CO alarm calls and we take a monitor on EMS calls. We’ve also used it for a few calls from homeowners who smelled gas. We are in a rural area and it’s nice to have the methane detection capability for barns. Sometimes our dispatch doesn’t pick up the manure pit – saves us the critical time it would take to go get a four gas monitor. The Airspace monitor is so easy to use and trouble free it just goes along all the time.”
From a Chief who has used our monitors for over 5 years. Several neighboring departments have bought monitors based on his recommendation.
“The Airspace unit is a good one at a low price. We’ve been carrying one of these on each engine for at least the last 7 years, with battery changes the only maintenance required.
I’ve been using one on job site safety inspections for the last 5 years, especially in winter, and especially in temporary enclosures with internal combustions engines or heaters.
They read alarms within a ppm or two, when compared to one of the NIOSH certified 4 gas monitors required for confined space entry and other OSHA regulated activities.”
From a Training officer
“Our department purchased our first unit from Airspace in 2002. It was one of the first out there since we had to wait for UL approval before it could be shipped. We like the unit because of the price, size and ease of use. Prior to this purchase we were using another vendors device and we had spent hundreds of dollars replacing the sensors and getting it recalibrated. It seemed like every time we needed the device it would not work.
The Airspace unit has worked every time we have needed to use it. The only maintenance required has been to change the batteries, which last a long time. We recently purchased 2 more so we could equip both engines and our equipment truck with the units. “
From a Chief
These incidents tell the story:
Ripon, WI: Paramedics were called to rescue several teens who called 911 extremely ill. They acknowledged they had been drinking. Airspace CO monitors alerted the paramedics to the presence of Carbon Monoxide. The care to the teens was redirected and a search of the home found the grandparents asleep and unresponsive. This call would very likely have resulted in a dramatically worse outcome if the team did not have CO monitors with them.
Mishicot, WI: An EMS crew responding to a call from a late 50's male experiencing a heavy chest and difficulty breathing were alerted to CO upon entry by the Airspace CO monitors they carry into every call. Appropriate care was given to the patient – and more importantly everyone was evacuated from the home without further harm. Very high levels of CO were later found due to a furnace vent begin blocked by snow and ice.
Marshfield, WI: An EMS crew responded to a call from a late 50's male in a local motel experiencing a heavy chest and difficulty breathing. The crew had just received new Airspace CO monitors. The CO alarm allowed them to address a significant CO issue in much of the motel. A better outcome was achieved for the patient, harm was avoided to other motel residents and none of the crew was exposed.
Stevens Point, WI: An EMS crew responding to a call for a sick child were alerted to CO upon entry by their Airspace Monitor alarming. Again, the patient received appropriate care, the EMS crew was not exposed and a larger catastrophe very likely was avoided by learning of the CO problem before they all went to sleep there that night.
Unfortunately, not everyone is carrying monitors; "Medic one of four to suffer carbon monoxide poisoning", was the headline of an article that described a paramedic "struck down with potentially fatal carbon monoxide poisoning". That article was published May 3, 2013.
It's almost a certainty a career Fire Fighter who is on a "first in" team is going to encounter carbon monoxide poisoning.
Before the availability of Airspace Monitors there may have been an argument that the cost and complexity of maintaining electro chemical monitors was prohibitive for this use. The low cost and simplicity of the Airspace Monitors reverses that argument - can you afford not to protect your people?
Further evidence of the need:
The CDC identified 15,200 cases of Carbon Monoxide Poisoning that weren't diagnosed until after admittance to an emergency room in 2003. By 2009 that had grown to over 50,000 cases found through greater awareness and more testing for CO.
The AMA believes there are still as many as 100,000 case of CO poisoning that are never diagnosed every year, just in the United States.
An Additional benefit:
Carrying carbon monoxide monitors has allowed first responders to identify lower levels of CO they would not have been aware of without monitors. Patients aren't returned to an unsafe environment and the problem in the building can be corrected before it becomes catastrophic.
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