Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2019 Jan 3;19(1):9.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-018-6342-4.

Mapping of carbon monoxide related death risk in Turkey: a ten-year analysis based on news agency records

Günay Can  1 , Uğurcan Sayılı  2 , Özden Aksu Sayman  1 , Ömer Faruk Kuyumcu  3 , Duygu Yılmaz  3 , Eren Esen  1 , Eray Yurtseven  1 , Ethem Erginöz  1
Affiliations

Mapping of carbon monoxide related death risk in Turkey: a ten-year analysis based on news agency records

Günay Can et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Carbon-monoxide (CO) poisoning is a substantial cause of preventable mortality. In Turkey, no nationwide data are being collected nowadays. In our study, we aimed to assess the trend in deaths related to CO exposure in all provinces of Turkey in a 10-year period by using the records of a news agency which collects the news from the majority of the national newspapers, local newspapers and television channels.

Methods: In this study, 27,881 news items that were released between January 2008 to December 2017 which included keywords of "poisoning" and "death" or "carbon monoxide" and "death" were evaluated. 2667 non-fire related deaths were used in the final analyses.

Results: In a 10-year period, the risk of CO-related death in Turkey was 0.35/100000. 1371 (51.4%) of the victims were male and the median age of the patients was 45 years (range, 15 days-108 years). Most of the deaths occurred ≥50 years of age. Stoves were the predominant source [n = 2096 (78.6%)]. There was a stagnating trend of CO-related deaths. Most of the incidents occurred in winter. The Middle Anatolian region was of the highest risk in CO-related mortality.

Conclusions: In conclusion, CO poisoning is still a considerable public health concern in Turkey. Results of our study showed that stoves are still frequently being used and are the cause of death especially in rural areas with lower socioeconomic status. A better organized, nationwide surveillance and management approaches are needed to demonstrate the true burden CO related morbidity and mortality as well as its prevention in Turkey.

Keywords: Carbon monoxide; Carbon monoxide poisoning; Death risk; Turkey; Unintentional poisoning.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Due to use of publicly available data in this study, ethical approval is not needed. However, we obtained an ethical approval from Ethical Committee of the Cerrahpasa Faculty of Medicine (Date: 22.03.2018/ Approval no: 34341879–604.01-02-109,722). The study was conducted according to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.

Consent for publication

Not applicable

Competing interests

All authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flow diagram of the process to obtain study data
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
CO-related death risks in the provinces of Turkey (Colorless Turkey map template was provided from the Wikimedia Commons) [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/T%C3%BCrkiye#/media/File:Turkey_location_map.svg]
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Trends in stove and non-stove related CO deaths in between 2008 and 2017
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
CO related deaths according to months
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Trends in number of CO related deaths and the percentage in total deaths
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Iqbal S, Clower JH, Saha S, Boehmer TK, Mattson C, Yip FY, Cobb RD, Flanders WD. Residential carbon monoxide alarm prevalence and ordinance awareness. J Public Health Manag Pract. 2012;18(3):272–278. doi: 10.1097/PHH.0b013e318221b1d1. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Blumenthal I. Carbon monoxide poisoning. J R Soc Med. 2001;94(6):270–272. doi: 10.1177/014107680109400604. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Weaver LK, Valentine KJ, Hopkins RO. Carbon monoxide poisoning: risk factors for cognitive sequelae and the role of hyperbaric oxygen. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2007;176(5):491–497. doi: 10.1164/rccm.200701-026OC. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Hampson NB, Weaver LK. Carbon monoxide poisoning: a new incidence for an old disease. Undersea Hyperb Med. 2007;34(3):163–168. - PubMed
    1. Ernst A, Zibrak JD. Carbon monoxide poisoning. N Engl J Med. 1998;339(22):1603–1608. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199811263392206. - DOI - PubMed