A CORONER has called for changes to be made after a teenager from the New Forest died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Thomas Oliver Hill, known as Tom by his family and friends, died at the age of 18 in October 2015.
An inquest into Tom's death was held at Winchester Coroner's Court last month found that the teenager died due to a faulty liquid petroleum gas (LPG) cabinet heater in the bathroom of a holiday cottage in Scotland.
He had been away with his girlfriend's family and was found collapsed near the bath due to a carbon monoxide (CO) leak.
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Coroner Jason Pegg has now sent a preventative future deaths report, calling on the Gas Safety Register to take action to prevent similar incidents occurring.
Mr Pegg's concerns, he wrote, were the fact the heater was in a room too small to safely be used, had no visible warning label on the exterior of the cabinet, was not made obvious to users that it could only be used in a room of a sufficient dimension and the fact the risk applies particularly to rented cottages, like Glenmark Cottage where Tom was poisoned.
The Gas Safety Register has until August 5 to detail any actions taken or proposed to be taken.
The inquest heard that a carbon monoxide alarm in the kitchen of the rented property went off on the evening of October 27.
Mark Beard, the father of Mr Hill's girlfriend, Charlotte, said he turned off all appliances in the kitchen and opened the windows.
However, he was not aware that the source of the carbon monoxide leak was an LPG cabinet heater in the bathroom.
Mr Beard said: "One of my lifelong regrets is that I hadn't taken notice of the bathroom heater as seriously as I might have done.
"I didn't tell anyone to get out of the cottage, it didn't occur to me to ask people to get out."
Mr Pegg recorded a conclusion of accidental death.
He said that a Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found the LPG cabinet heater should not have been used in a room as small as the bathroom and which had no ventilation because the windows had been painted shut.
