Winter in Winnipeg: the deadly risks of cold

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/12/2023 (1016 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Earlier this year, the latest iteration of the trucker convoy sent out pictures of the structures they’re building to be able to spend the winter in Ontario as they prepare for … something.

From the photographs, it was pretty clear that the group had accidentally vented their propane-powered hot water heater inside the building that held the shower, rather than to the outside air.

This isn’t meant to belittle them for their error — social media did that both viciously and quickly.

It’s to point out that potentially fatal mistakes are easy to make, especially when burning compressed gas to use as a heat source.

Why is it important to point this out? Well, there are some shoes here you should think about walking in.

Two people, a man and a woman, were found dead in a tent in Joe Zuken Heritage Park on Euclid Avenue in North Point Douglas on Monday, and while there hasn’t been an official cause of death for either of them at this point, there are strong suspicions that carbon monoxide from a propane heater being used to keep the tent warm is to blame.

Tents don’t have carbon monoxide detectors. And rudimentary or jury-rigged heat sources aren’t regularly checked for their safety (though police and fire officials do attempt to attempt to point out dangerous installations in encampments).

Carbon monoxide has no taste, colour or smell: it’s a byproduct of combustion, meaning it’s made when things burn. It can build to high concentrations in enclosed spaces.

In normal circumstances, your blood carries oxygen throughout the body, essentially dropping it off and picking up carbon dioxide, which gets shed from your body when you exhale.

The problem is that carbon monoxide binds to red blood cells, taking the place of the necessary oxygen that the red blood cells are carrying around your body. In fact, it binds to the blood’s hemoglobin 200 to 300 more effectively than oxygen does, so that your blood can’t transport the oxygen.

Your body suffocates from the inside. Three hundred Canadians die every year from carbon monoxide poisoning — another 200 are hospitalized. Many of those who die from the poisoning die while sleeping.

With the onset of carbon monoxide poisoning comes an array of symptoms: headaches, a rosy complexion, drowsiness, nausea, confusion, disorientation.

And leaving the carbon monoxide-filled atmosphere doesn’t magically solve everything: the carbon monoxide is still bound to the same number of red blood cells. You need medical help.

That’s why, if your furnace burns natural gas or you have a wood stove, it’s a smart idea to have several carbon monoxide detectors in your home, both ones wired into your home’s electrical system, and battery-operated ones as well. And you should check the batteries regularly.

As for those trying to keep warm outdoors, the fault doesn’t lie with people who die doing what they can do — what they have to do — to try and survive the brutal winter cold in Manitoba. It’s a devil’s bargain: freezing cold temperatures are no more survivable than odourless poisonous gas.

The fault lies closer to the rest of us.

It certainly isn’t easy to help everyone: some people outright resist help, for a variety of reasons. But we could do a far better job of keeping as many people safe as we possibly can.

People shouldn’t die because they are forced to find ways to survive extreme cold on their own.

Most of us get choices and second chances, battery-powered warnings and an opportunity to escape when danger arrives because of a blocked chimney or a flaw in a furnace.

Others do not.