Gas Safety Week – keeping the UK safe

It's the UK's annual Gas Safety Week from 18 th to 24 th September 2017. With that in mind, are you certain that your home or workplace is SAFE?

S . Safety Check: make sure you have your gas appliances safety checked each year

A . Alarm: do you have an audible, working carbon monoxide alarm in your home?

F . Flame: were you aware that a lazy, yellow flame could indicate a fault with your gas appliance?

E . Engineer: legally you must use a Gas Safe registered engineer to carry out any checks, installations, servicing or repairs to gas appliances and equipment.

Of course, gas safety is important 365 days of the year, but Gas Safety Week seeks to highlight the dangers that poorly maintained gas appliances can pose. In the wrong hands, gas can be incredibly dangerous – it can cause fires, explosions, leaks and carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning, which can be fatal.

You may assume that Gas Safety Week is just another way for the government to scare you into spending money on checks. However, a frightening amount of dangers have been discovered in our area. For example, in SS15 alone, Gas Safe engineers found 42 unsafe cookers, 76 unsafe boilers and 5 unsafe fires.

So what can you do to ensure your home or workplace is Gas Safe?

If your home, office or workplace uses gas, you need to be aware of the risks gas may pose. Badly fitted, poorly serviced or faulty gas appliances are no joke – they can be deadly. However, it is quite simple to ensure you, your family, friends and colleagues remain safe around gas.

A carbon monoxide alarm is no more intrusive than a smoke alarm but it could save your life. Make sure it is an audible alarm for total peace of mind.

It is a legal requirement that anyone working with gas is on the Gas Safe Register. To use someone without the necessary qualifications is illegal and dangerous.

It doesn't take long to check that your chosen engineer is Gas Safe registered. Simply visit the Gas Safe Register website and you can either search by location, business or engineer licence number.

If you are a landlord, you are legally required to have an annual Gas Safety check every 12 months in order to be issued with a Gas Safety Record. Private homeowners do not have to have their appliances checked but for your peace of mind, we recommend an annual service.

An annual gas check/service is all very well but appliances can develop a fault in the 11 months between. There are some signs that indicate your gas appliances are not working properly, which include stains or black marks around the appliance, a lazy yellow flame rather than a crisp blue flame and excess condensation in a room.

• Headaches
• Nausea and vomiting
• Dizziness
• Breathlessness
• Collapse
• Loss of consciousness