Family saved by cigarette test

Ms Bolesworth's carbon monoxide levels dropped once her car was fixed

A mother who was trying to quit cigarettes has told how a routine test revealed her family were at risk from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Annette Bolesworth, 44, from Rutherglen, had a blood test done at her local pharmacy as part of a stop-smoking programme.

The reading was the equivalent of someone chain-smoking 100 cigarettes.

Ms Bolesworth eventually discovered that her car was the culprit, and a faulty pipe was poisoning her family.

The mother-of-two said: "We were all being poisoned with it and if I had been going on a long journey I would probably have fallen asleep at the wheel.

"It cost £210 to get the car fixed, but £210 against our lives is nothing."

She added: "I'm relieved because it was dangerous to us all.

"I'm very grateful to the pharmacy. They helped me stop smoking but they saved my life as well."

The care home worker decided to give up her 20-a-day cigarette habit about three months ago for health reasons.

My levels were coming down and then one week they were even higher than when I was a smoker Annette Bolesworth

She signed up to the 12-week Pharmacy Smokefree Services programme, backed by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

The project provides nicotine patches to smokers, who come for a weekly visit and blood test to monitor their carbon monoxide levels.

Ms Bolesworth's levels were initially coming down, but seven weeks into the programme staff recorded the high reading of 49 parts per million in her blood - far above the 0-8 average for a non-smoker.

She said: "My levels were coming down and then one week they were even higher than when I was a smoker.

"I was shocked and puzzled about where it could be coming from.

"The pharmacists were quite worried about how high the level was.

"They were checking my lips to see if I had any obvious signs of poisoning, but I didn't feel any different."

Faulty pipe

She had her house checked by a gas engineer who confirmed there were no leaks there.

Then she took her car to the garage, where mechanics discovered that a faulty pipe was diverting carbon monoxide fumes into the vehicle instead of into the open air.

Ms Bloesworth, her partner and two daughters were breathing in the potentially lethal gas whenever they used the car.

Liz Grant, the public health pharmacist and co-ordinator of the service said: "Pharmacy Smokefree Service goes far beyond providing support to help smokers stop; the service also carries out regular carbon monoxide readings on clients and so can detect any abnormalities in the readings such as in Annette's case and so can save lives in more ways than one."