It takes between five hours for half of the carbon monoxide to dissipate from the body and at least two days for carbon monoxide to completely dissipate from home when exposed to enough ventilation.
Carbon monoxide is a dangerous gas that kills without mercy. It is an odorless, tasteless and colorless gas that kills when exposed without enough ventilation.
How Long Does it Take for Carbon Monoxide to Dissipate From the Body?
It can take between 5 hours to 2 days for carbon monoxide to completely dissipate from the body. It will involve a lot of fresh air or oxygen to actualize that.
When one is exposed to carbon monoxide for a very long time, the gas will get into the carboxyhemoglobin in your blood which is supposed to transport oxygen around the body. Therefore, the carbon monoxide will bind this carboxyhemoglobin rendering it useless and unable to function.
At this stage, the carboxyhemoglobin cannot do its job of transporting oxygen around the body. The body will start failing immediately as it is starved of oxygen. Sometimes, you may not know what is happening because you seem not to be suffocating but the truth is that the gas is doing more damage inside the body than you can imagine.
Be that as it may, the half-life of carboxyhemoglobin in fresh air is five hours. Therefore, if the half-life of carboxyhemoglobin in fresh air is 5 hours, that means it takes 5 hours for half of the carboxyhemoglobin inside the body to dissipate.
This also means that it will take another five hours for another half of the carbon monoxide to flush out from the body. If this is the case, it will however take several hours for carbon monoxide to dissipate from the body.
How Long Does it Take for Carbon Monoxide to Dissipate From the House?
Depending on how long the house is exposed to carbon monoxide, it will take between 5 hours to two days for carbon monoxide to completely dissipate from the house when exposed to fresh air. The more ventilation that enters the house, the quicker it is for the carbon monoxide to completely dissipate from the house.
Factors that Determines How Long Carbon Monoxide Takes to Dissipate?
Here are the factors that determine how long it takes for carbon monoxide to determine from the body and home:
The Level of Exposure to Carbon Monoxide
Of course, the amount of exposure a person gives to carbon monoxide determines how fast it leaves the person’s body. The same goes for the house as well. If the carbon monoxide gas leak was noticed immediately its started leaking, there is a chance that the people in the house itself may not have been exposed for a long time, which means, there will be a little amount of carbon monoxide in their body and in the air.
With this small amount of carbon monoxide, it will take more than five hours or lesser than 5 hours for the carbon monoxide to completely dissipate as long as the person leaves the house immediately and expose himself to fresh air.
The same goes for the house, once the homeowner opens the window to allow enough fresh air inside the house, it will help speed up the process.
But if you are exposed to carbon monoxide for a very long time without knowing, it will take a longer time for it completely dissipate from your body. You may even need a medical emergency to help speed up the process and prevent it from doing more damage to the body.
The same goes for the house. If the leak was much inside the house. You need to open all the windows for fresh air. If possible, open the doors as well. The more fresh air that enters the house, the more the dissipation speeds up.
The Amount of Fresh Air Exposed to Afterwards
After you noticed that your house has a carbon monoxide gas leak, did you open the windows and doors immediately for fresh air? Carbon monoxide will take forever to completely dissipate from your home if you did not open your windows to allow enough ventilation inside the house. Opening the windows will stop carbon monoxide poisoning.
If the carbon monoxide leak was much in the house, you may consider calling the fire department to come to check your house for carbon monoxide. They are in a better position to tell you what to do. But if you feel the leak was not much, you can quickly open the window.
While opening the window, check all the appliances you have at home that produce carbon monoxide. If any is on, please turn them off.
For the body, if you expose yourself to carbon monoxide for a very long time, you will need a medical emergency. Please quickly go and see the doctor. While leaving the house, open the windows.
But if you managed to open the windows and leave your house immediately your carbon monoxide detector went off, you only need hours of fresh air for the carbon monoxide to completely dissipate from your body.
Your Health Status
While those that are healthy may not suffer more from carbon monoxide, those that already have complicated health and children may suffer more. It may take longer hours or days for carbon monoxide to dissipate from these medical elderlies or children’s bodies. This set of people does not need fresh air alone. Irrespective of how long they were exposed to carbon monoxide, they will be needing a medical check-up.
How Long Does it Take for a Carbon Monoxide to Leave a Room?
It will take between 5 hours to two days for a carbon monoxide to completely leave a room depending on how much ventilation is in the room. To speed up the rate at which carbon monoxide leaves the room, open your windows and door to allow enough fresh air inside the room.
There are four things you need to do here:
- Quickly open the windows for fresh air
- Turn off all appliances at home that produces carbon monoxide
- Leave the house, and
- Call the fire department to come to check the house for you.
Final Thoughts
Since it takes a longer period of time for carbon monoxide to completely leave the body and a house, you are however advised not to enter the same house until at least after several hours before entering the house again. This is to ensure that the level of carbon monoxide inside the house is not high enough to give your health issues. Also, while inside, ensure that the windows are still open for more ventilation.
