New figures released by the Gas Safety Trust, the UK's consumer fuel safety charity, suggests that a greater proportion of carbon monoxide incidents are now being identified before serious injury takes place.

Around 20% of the reported casualties in 2010/11 were categorised as less severe (not requiring hospital treatment) compared with 11% prior to 2008/09, which the Trust said may be attributed to an increased use of CO alarms.

The report analysed accidental CO poisoning incidents in Great Britain associated with the use of mains natural gas and piped LPG in the home.

There were 50 incidents associated with domestic mains natural gas reported during this period, resulting in 101 casualties and eight fatalities.

Of the eight fatalities, five were associated with central heating appliances, two with cookers and one with a space heater.

The total is twice the figure for 2009/10, although the charity has said it is too early to say whether this is due to natural variability or represents a definite trend.

This year, the report includes an assessment of domestic solid fuel and oil heating incidents as reported by HETAS and OFTEC, offering a picture of carbon monoxide safety issues across all fuels.

Prepared by Downstream Gas Ltd and funded by the Gas Safety Trust, the report identifies common concerns involved in carbon monoxide incidents related to appliance and system design, the home environment, installation, servicing and maintenance.

The conclusions reached are intended to help further improve safety, to target investment on carbon monoxide incident prevention and to identify additional research work.

Gas Safety Trust Board Chair Chris Bielby said; "The Gas Safety Trust is pleased to fund this report. We strongly believe that the information and data contained within it to be crucial to the further reduction in fatalities or serious injuries from accidental carbon monoxide exposure in the home environment."