Chemical Reactions: Forced Sleep and Memory Loss

Starting article: http://time.com/3759511/sleeping-disorder-kazakhstan/ (which links to http://siberiantimes.com/other/others/features/siberian-experts-say-they-can-solve-the-cause-of-mystery-sleeping-disorder/)

'Chemistry' aspect follow-up: http://www.praofb.org/v2/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49&catid=5 and

http://chemistry.about.com/od/medicalhealth/fl/How-Does-Carbon-Monoxide-Kill-You.htm

Just thinking about the title of this post should leave you a little scared. Basically there's this remote town in Kazakhstan where hundreds of its residents keep falling asleep for 2 to 6 days at a time, and then wake up with lapses of memory. Yeah.

This ailment affects those living in the Kazakh village of Kalachi, a town close to a uranium mine. Thousands of tests have been conducted on the soil, the water, the air, as well as patients - including miniscule samples of their blood, hair and nails. (Lots of scientists are on this.) However results are hard to come by, there are no high radiation levels, no heavy metal salts, and no positive bacteriiological or viral tests.

Scientists state that it has "nothing in common with any of 85 known sleeping disorders". Even more, patients seem to be getting better with general therapy, so there are even more theories that it is of a psychogenic nature, similar to the massive psychosis 'Bin Laden itch' when people were scared of the possible bacteriological attack, they developed rashes.

There also seems to be some discrepancies between scientists as to the cause:

Leonid Rikhvanov, professor of geo-ecology and geo-chemistry of Tomsk Polytechnical University, said that they arrived at the conclusion that radon gas is the reason, but it is not because of radioactive radon. It instead comes from a chemical effect of the gas. In other words, the disease is caused by evaporation from the mine.

Whereas Sergei Lukashenko, director of Kazakhstan’s National Nuclear Centre’s Radiation Safety and Ecology Institute, told the Siberian Times that he is “positive this is not radon” and pointed to carbon monoxide. “We have some suspicions as the village has a peculiar location and weather patterns frequently force chimney smoke to go down instead of up,” he said. (As carbon monoxide is a key contaminant in smoke.)

To include some chemistry in this post, here's a short overview of what CO does:

The short version is that carbon monoxide inhibits the blood's ability to carry oxygen. The hemoglobin in your red blood cells prefers to bind to CO instead of O2 (about 240x as much), so as the level of CO increases, the amount of oxygen they carry decreases. The result of the CO and hemoglobin is the carboxyhemoglobin, or COHb. In addition to not allowing O2 in your bloodstream, they also cause blood vessels to become porous and leaky. Especially in the brain, this causes it to swell and lead to weakness, dizziness, unconsciousness, comas, permanent brain damage, and even death. It all depends on the concentration of CO and the length of exposure.

As for questions, what precautions do you take to be aware of/limit your exposure to CO in your home, and were you previously aware of its serious health risks? (Also, have you ever taken laughing gas or something similar? Did you record it?)