London Fire Brigade has launched a safety campaign to promote new laws over carbon monoxide detectors in rental properties, but something about this awareness poster doesn’t quite seem right.
BAD landlords listen up, if your tenants don't have smoke alarms it’s you BREAKING the rules http://t.co/kjyJNALBOf pic.twitter.com/c6J1vnauzz
— London Fire Brigade (@LondonFire) July 27, 2015
Anyone who has ever studied the periodic table during their school days will realise that rather than using the chemical symbol for carbon monoxide, the brigade appears to seeking to raise awareness of cobalt instead.
The campaign poster - which states “Could kill you. Have you ordered yours yet?” - highlights the letters Co accompanied by the atomic number 27 – the chemical symbol for the hard, silver-grey metal.
Carbon monoxide, on the other hand, is a highly toxic, odourless compound gas made up of carbon and oxygen and is abbreviated by the symbol CO, which doesn’t appear on the periodic table and has no atomic number.
The poster, tweeted today alongside the words “BAD landlords listen up, if your tenants don’t have smoke alarms it’s you BREAKING the rules” alludes to the television series Breaking Bad, which has chemical symbols in its title sequence.
The mentions of the drastically different yet similarly abbreviated substances have caused confusion since the poster was tweeted today.
@LondonFire What does cobalt have to do with it....?
— David Sidebottom (@wavesandoceans) July 27, 2015
London Fire Brigade claimed highlighting cobalt rather than the actual threat carbon monoxide wasn’t a mistake, but a thought-out promotional technique.
A spokesman said: “Using cobalt on the poster wasn’t a mistake; it was an intentional spin on Breaking Bad.
“We know that the symbol stands for cobalt, we did it off the back of Breaking Bad, using Breaking Bad as a hook so we can get the message across to landlords that they must install carbon monoxide detectors for their rental properties to protect their tenants from the gas which can be fatal if not discovered.
“If anything this will hopefully get people talking about it even more and get the message about carbon monoxide safety out there.”
Read more:
Colourless and odourless, carbon monoxide is extremely hard to detect and, without a sufficient air supply, leaks of the toxic gas can be fatal if it fills an enclosed space.
Any connection between Breaking Bad's crystal meth-making antics and carbon monoxide detection remains unclear.
