Concerns about CO poisoning's long-term effects prompt health checks of LaSalle schoolchildren

Public health officials are following the children who were exposed to carbon monoxide that's suspected of having leaked from their LaSalle elementary school's faulty furnace in January.

The Montreal regional health board held a clinic at École des Découvreurs over three days in late February, referring on 99 students to a pediatrician for further checkups.

"Carbon monoxide can have delayed or persistent effects," said Dr. Maxime Roy, a consulting physician with the agency. "There's a need for people who have been exposed to carbon monoxide to be evaluated again roughly four weeks after they've been exposed."

"We wanted to make sure there would be no obstacles to the students having that follow-up caused by them having to travel to the hospital," Roy said.

In all, 244 students were examined. First, they were evaluated by a nurse or medical resident, who went through their responses to a questionnaire about expected symptoms.

That determined which students required an additional medical evaluation by a pediatrician on site, Roy said.

The 99 students included children who were taken to hospital by ambulance on the day of exposure and those whose parents took them to a doctor after they showed symptoms. Some of them were examined by a pediatrician as a matter of course, whether or not they still felt sick.

Other students who seemed fine after the exposure but had symptoms later were also examined. 

Roy said the majority of the children are expected to make a complete recovery, but "from what we know about carbon monoxide poisoning, we expect that some unlucky children will have delayed or persistent effects." 

Teachers also checked

The health board held a separate follow-up clinic for teachers and other school staff on March 1.

Around 40 adults were seen at that time, but the results are not yet available, said Jean-Nicholas Aubé, a spokesperson for the agency that oversees Montreal's south-central sector, the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l'Île-de-Montréal.

Fire officials said at the time of the incident, the carbon monoxide levels in the school's hallways were as much as five times higher than levels that would normally trigger an evacuation.

A faulty furnace system is believed to have caused the problem. The heating system had been inspected by a specialized team before winter, Marguerite-Bourgeoys school board chair Diane Lamarche-Venne said last month.

Lamarche-Venne said there was a carbon monoxide detector at École des Découvreurs that was inspected in mid-October. 

"Everything was functional," she said at that time.

In the aftermath of the incident, the board committed to check all of its 80 schools to make sure they had working carbon monoxide detectors.

The provincial government also said it would change its regulations to require that all schools have gas detectors and that they be inspected annually.