That’s the warning from several Michigan emergency room doctors who wanted to know if varying the type of stove fuel might make a difference in such situations. They also wondered if the more rugged, four-season tents favored by those who like to be ready for anything would raise the concentration of carbon monoxide more than airier three-season versions. Quick answers from their small, first-pass test: Yes and yes.
“Four-season tents are built really well to keep out the elements,” says Dr. David Betten, a medical toxicologist in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, Mich. “Unfortunately, that same tight construction means they’re not all that well ventilated.”
In several 20-minute burns inside the two types of tents, Betten and his colleagues tested the output of a popular backpacking stove as it heated a pan of water. In each trial, described online in the journal Wilderness & Environmental Medicine, they either burned unleaded gasoline or used “white gas,” the cleaner-burning petroleum fuel that is commonly sold with camp stoves and lanterns.