The All-Party Parliamentary Carbon Monoxide's (APPCOG's) medical working group COMed has published a working paper on carbon monoxide (CO) in pregnancy, calling for renewed efforts to prevent, treat, and better understand this preventable source of harm to women and young children.

CO is an odourless, tasteless and colourless gas that is toxic and especially harmful to pregnant women and young children. CO poisoning is particularly harmful to foetuses, as in-utero CO exposure has been linked with 'low-birth weight, neurodevelopmental problems, congenital malformations and sudden infant death.'

To address this risk, our working paper sets out four areas in need of improvement as well as numerous recommendations outlining how this can be achieved. Specifically, we must:

• Increase preventative measures;

• Improve treatment pathways;

• Fill research gaps; and

• Expand CO training.

The APPCOG looks forward to continuing this work with Parliamentary colleagues in 2020 and we encourage you to oliver.buckley-mellor [at] policyconnect.org.uk (subject: APPCOG%3A%20CO%20in%20pregnancy, body: Dear%20Oliver%2C) (get in touch) if you have questions or would like to be involved.