Severe winter weather and a stormy economy could combine to make one of the season's common killers, carbon monoxide poisoning, even worse this year, public health and safety officials say. Coast-to-coast snowstorms and power outages, paired with spiking rates of utility shutoffs spurred by record unemployment, are likely to increase the accidental exposures that typically send more than 20,000 people to the emergency room and kill nearly 500 each year. "I'm pretty sure we're going to see a big bump in carbon monoxide poisonings this winter," said Dr. Eric J. Lavonas, associate director of the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center in Denver. "This economy is the perfect storm."

Deprived of power, people are firing up gas-powered generators and bringing barbecue grills indoors, forgetting the deadly consequences of the colorless, odorless, tasteless gas that can lead to illness, brain damage -- and death. "We see it during power outages and we see it during bad economic times," said Jim Burns, past president and spokesman for the National Association of State Fire Marshals. "Unfortunately, people in desperate times take all means to stay warm." In Redwood City, Calif., eight members of a large family, including several children, were sickened Dec. 17 when they fired up a gasoline-powered generator in the basement of a house where electricity had been disconnected for nonpayment.

Learn more about the dangers of Carbon Monoxide poisoning and the legal rights of victims of CO injuries.