Let’s be CO safe abroad, says APPCOG

Published:  16 May, 2016

The All-Party Parliamentary Carbon Monoxide Group (APPCOG) has called for greater awareness amongst travellers regarding carbon monoxide (CO) safety, and for both the government and travel industry to act to help keep Britons abroad safe from CO.

This follows a recent panel discussion chaired by David Burrowes MP, called following the death of Francesca Dingley from CO poisoning in Chengdu, China in 2015. The panel featured evidence from Mark Dingley, Francesca’s father, alongside the CO All Fuel Forum’s Leigh Greenham, and Angela Hill, destinations services manager at the Association of British Travel Agents.

Mr Dingley urged the audience that CO alarms should be seen as an essential travel item, and that the travel industry should do more to promote the need for holidaymakers to take alarms with them when they travel. Additionally, Mr Dingley urged that advice on CO included on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office website should be made more prominent, and be delivered more forcefully.

Research by the Safer Tourism Foundation has revealed that just 5% of respondents consider CO risks before going on holiday, despite the same research finding that 1 in 10 of the 12,000 respondents surveyed had been affected some way by CO.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock/ Leena Robinson