AN MP is encouraging his constituents to enter a national Carbon Monoxide awareness competition.

Primary schools across Alyn and Deeside have been invited to take part to raise awareness of the dangers of Carbon Monoxide poisoning and Mark Tami MP has written to local schools to encourage them to take part.

The competition, organised by local gas network Cadent, is designed to teach children about the dangers of Carbon Monoxide and to help them to keep safe.

Entries should be children aged between five and 11, in any form of media, such as eye-catching cartoons, videos, models, short stories or poems that are informative and accurate in warning of the dangers of CO poisoning.

The winners will receive a prize for themselves and for their school, at an awards ceremony in the House of Commons in July.

Mark Tami MP said: "This competition is a great way for children to recognise just how dangerous Carbon Monoxide is and how to keep safe from this silent killer.

"It would be great to see as many local schools as possible joining in and I will look forward to welcoming the local winners to the Commons this summer for the awards ceremony."

The competition is being run by Cadent, in conjunction with the Energy Networks Association. Entries must be submitted in the form of a JPEG photograph or coloured scan or as a link/attachment (if entry is in video or digital form), and emailed along with the entrant’s name, age, school/organisation and postcode to: COSafetyCompetition@energynetworks.org (1 entry per entrant per email).

Submissions received by other means will not be entered into the competition. Entries are required to be submitted by midnight Friday, May 10.

More information can be found online at www.cadentgas.com/co-safety-competition.

Health experts know that CO exposure leads to more than 30 people a year losing their lives and 200 people being admitted to hospital, but it is not yet known how many undiagnosed cases return home, become ill again, or die from continued exposure to CO.

The experts believe these figures could be a gross underestimation and the actual cost to the NHS is likely to be much more than the current estimate of £178million per annum.