Fatal Attraction: Home Generators Used to Power Video Games

May 27, 2009 -

After a hurricane passes through, you might think that video games would be the last thing on the minds of people in the affected area.

You'd be wrong.

medpage TODAY reports that carbon monoxide poisoning caused by gasoline-fueled portable generators is a fairly common occurence following hurricanes. A surprising number of such incidents involve generators used to power video game systems:

Of 12 separate poisoning incidents in the Houston area in the wake of Hurricane Ike, which left two million people without power in September 2008, five resulted from the use of generators for video games, Caroline Fife, M.D., of the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, and colleagues reported.

Overall, 21 children and 17 adults were poisoned. A three-year-old died, and the others had symptoms ranging from nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and headache to chest pain, loss of consciousness, and coma, the researchers reported in the June issue of Pediatrics.

"This is the first study to suggest that generators are commonly used immediately after a large-scale power outage to power entertainment electronics for children," they said.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission told medpage TODAY:

Operating a generator inside your home produces poisonous levels of carbon monoxide equal to that of hundreds of cars running inside your home.

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Comments

Re: Fatal Attraction: Home Generators Used to Power Video ...

Submitted by Wolvenmoon on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 02:35.

Damn, that's sad. There needs to be some sort of mandatory warning near the starting mechanism for the generators. Something like "Emits carbon monoxide, which will kill you. Run generator only outdoors."

Ignorance is not stupidity. Ignorance is curable.

I will not buy securom games. http://www.wolvenmoon.com/sharedfiles/message1.jpg and http://www.wolvenmoon.com/sharedfiles/message2.jpg

Re: Fatal Attraction: Home Generators Used to Power Video ...

Submitted by Wormdundee on Wed, 05/27/2009 - 14:51.

Survival of the fittest in action. You have to be some sort of dumbass to not realize that containing the fumes from burning gasoline inside your house is probably bad for you. It's just like sucking the tailpipe of a car people!

Re: Fatal Attraction: Home Generators Used to Power Video ...

Submitted by Lou on Wed, 05/27/2009 - 12:51.

Not a big fan of portable generators to power a house after a hurricane. That's why I saved my money and got a stationary generator that runs on natural gas. I have a portable generator but it's mostly to use it when I take my family out on camping trips. And besides why would you use a freaking generator indoors?! Like some of the readers said "natural selection"

Re: Fatal Attraction: Home Generators Used to Power Video ...

Submitted by hellfire7885 on Wed, 05/27/2009 - 10:12.

A whole new batch of Darwin award nominess eh?

Re: Fatal Attraction: Home Generators Used to Power Video ...

Submitted by CMiner on Wed, 05/27/2009 - 08:19.

I was at college when Hurricane Katrina hit, close enough to the coast that we lost power for a few days. My friends and I wandered around the the campus, bored, until one of them discovered at his dorm that there was a single outlet in the stairwell that actually ran off of the emergency generators on campus. Within 15 minutes we had 3 XBoxes, 3 TVs and two dozen people crammed in that stairwell. Fun times.

Re: Fatal Attraction: Home Generators Used to Power Video ...

Submitted by zel on Wed, 05/27/2009 - 07:56.

Dang, they should include 100ft extension cables with them things, maybe then people would be inclined to put em OUTSIDE O.o or maybe stick catalytic converters on em or something. Then it would be massive amounts of carbon dioxide :/

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Re: Fatal Attraction: Home Generators Used to Power Video ...

Submitted by Bill on Wed, 05/27/2009 - 08:04.

A person running a generator inside after a hurricane has nothing to do with games. They just aren't reading the directions for proper use of a generator.

Look I have been though at least 3 major hurricanes and for many people all it means is that their lights will be out for a week. Some have no home damage other than loss of power. So, people buy generators to run the fridge, maybe a window unit AC and, yes, the television. It's not a huge stretch to think that the bored kids in the house will turn on a game system while they wait for power to be restored. But it's not like someone said "shit, I can't play my games, I should get a generator."

Re: Fatal Attraction: Home Generators Used to Power Video ...

Submitted by Kajex on Wed, 05/27/2009 - 09:12.

No kidding- if you're waiting THAT long for power to return after something that damaging, you're probably busy around the house, boarding up windows, getting debris out of the way, and contacting neighbors and family to direct restoration efforts.

Re: Fatal Attraction: Home Generators Used to Power Video ...

Submitted by SimonBob on Wed, 05/27/2009 - 07:36.

I've always said video games were a gas, but this is ridiculous.

(Too soon?)

---
The Mammon Philosophy

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Fangamer

Re: Fatal Attraction: Home Generators Used to Power Video ...

Submitted by Tubatic on Wed, 05/27/2009 - 07:43.

Clearly this new generation of gamers will be the death of us.

Re: Fatal Attraction: Home Generators Used to Power Video ...

Submitted by sortableturnip on Wed, 05/27/2009 - 09:53.

Natural Selection at its finest?

Sortableturnip's Law: As an online discussion of video game violence grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Jack Thompson approaches 1

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james_fudge: It should be noted that the author leaked the GJP group names online10/20/2014 - 6:03am

MechaTama31: I mean, of the groups being bullied here, which of the two would you refer to collectively as "nerds"?10/19/2014 - 11:30pm

MechaTama31: But that's the thing, it doesn't sound to me like he is advocating bullying, it sounds like he is accusing the SJWs of bullying the "nerds", who I can only assume refers to the GGers.10/19/2014 - 11:21pm

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Neo_DrKefka: Breaking GameJournoPros organized a blacklist of former Destructoid writer Allistar Pinsof for investigating fraud in IndieGoGo campaign http://blogjob.com/oneangrygamer/2014/10/gamergate-destructoid-corruption-and-ruined-careers/10/19/2014 - 8:57pm

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Neo_DrKefka: Even after all the interviews she is still on twitter making fun of people with disabilities (Autism) yet she is a part of the crowd that is on the so called right side of history...10/19/2014 - 7:48pm

Neo_DrKefka: Which #GameGate supports are constantly being harassed and bullied. Brianna Wu who I told everyone she was trolling GamerGate weeks ago with her passive aggressive threats was looking for that crazy person in the crowd.10/19/2014 - 7:47pm

Neo_DrKefka: I believe the problem #GamerGate has with Sam Biddle is he is apart of this blogging group that in a way hates or detests its readers. Also being apart of the crowd that claims its on the right side of history isn't helping when he is advocating bullying10/19/2014 - 7:45pm

MechaTama31: Of course, I'm looking at these tweets in isolation, I don't know a thing about the guy.10/19/2014 - 7:06pm

MechaTama31: If anything, the sarcastic implication seems to be that the SJW crowd is bringing back the bullying of nerds. But it's the GGers who are out for his blood? I'm lost...10/19/2014 - 7:01pm

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quiknkold: and yes, its free10/19/2014 - 4:05pm

quiknkold: should grab Hauppauge capture. has mic support and can upload directly to youtube10/19/2014 - 4:05pm

Andrew Eisen: The former.10/19/2014 - 4:00pm

quiknkold: was it StreamEez, or the StreamEez feature in Hauppauge Capture? cause I know Capture has alot more support from the devs.10/19/2014 - 3:54pm

Andrew Eisen: I actually tried StreamEez last week. Flat out didn't work.10/19/2014 - 3:53pm

quiknkold: I use the Hauppauge Capture software's StreamEez. Arcsoft showbiz for recording. I just streamed a few hours of Persona 4 Golden with zero problem using the program. Xsplit is finniky when it comes to Hauppauge10/19/2014 - 3:40pm

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