Carbon Monoxide-Related Mortality in the United States, 1979 to 1998

Joshua A. Mott, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Mitchell I. Wolfe, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Lauren Ball, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Jeanne Moorman, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
David Mannino, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Stephen Redd, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning is responsible for over 2000 deaths in the United States every year. In this paper we describe 31 years (1968-1998) of CO-related deaths in the United States and to evaluate reasons for changes in trends over time. From 1968 through 1998, the annual age-adjusted rate of unintentional CO-related deaths decreased 79%, and CO-related suicides decreased 40%. Negative binomial regression analyses indicated that 72% of the 31-year decline in CO-related deaths was attributable to declining motor vehicle-related death rates, which only began to decrease following the 1975 introduction of the catalytic converter to automobiles to meet standards set by the 1970 Clean Air Act. These findings suggest that if age-specific rates of CO-related deaths had remained at pre-1975 levels, an additional 21,788 motor vehicle-related poisoning deaths and 8,530 non-motor vehicle-related poisoning deaths would have occurred from 1975 to 1998.