Carbon Monoxide Detectors

Status
Not open for further replies.

jwelectric

Senior Member
Location
North Carolina
On February 2, 2006, the Massachusetts Board of Fire Prevention Regulations (BFPR) approved amendments to the Code of Massachusetts Regulations (527 CMR 31:00), to implement Massachusetts General Law Chapter 148 Section 10A. The law known as ?Nicole?s Law?, was signed into law by Governor Mitt Romney on November 4, 2005 and is named in memory of 7-year-old Nicole Garofalo, who died January 2005 when she succumbed to carbon monoxide in her Plymouth, Massachusetts home after snow from a blizzard blocked the vent to a propane-fired boiler.


I was wondering how many in here think that Carbon Monoxide Detectors should be mandated in any home that uses fossil fuel.
 

raider1

Senior Member
Staff member
Location
Logan, Utah
The state of Utah also agrees and has amended the IRC to require a carbon monoxide alarm to be installed on each habitable level of a home with fuel burning appliances.

Chris
 

steve66

Senior Member
Location
Illinois
Occupation
Engineer
Why have them in a house that doesn't have fossil fuel??? Is there any chance of carbon monoxide building up in those?

But I would probably guess 95% of houses have fossil fuels. And I think these detectors should be required. They are really cheap now, and can be integrated into the smoke detector.

Steve
 

JohnE

Senior Member
Location
Milford, MA
I agree that every home with fossil fuel should be required to have CO detectors. In MA detectors within 20' of a kitchen or bath are required to be photoelectric. At this time a combo CO/ photo smoke detector is not available, so the CO unit usually will need to be a separate device.

Based on info I received yesterday, I wouldn't bother using a combo detector which uses ionization detection, even if it is legal in your area. They prove useless in the typical home fire. You need photoelectric detection, for enough warning to escape when sleeping.
 

pierre

Senior Member
Prior to the 2006 NYS code cycle, there was a rather small code requirement for carbon monoxide detectors.
The new code cycle will most likely be adopted by summer or no later than September. It has quite a change in the requirements for carbon monnoxide detectors, and I am sure will catch a lot of contractors off guard.
 

bphgravity

Senior Member
Location
Florida
Over the past two years, over 100 people have died in the state of Florida from CO poisoning. In most cases, it involved portable generator use after the hurricanes. In almost all cases, a CO alarm could have possibly prevented the deaths.
 

iwire

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Massachusetts
bphgravity said:
Over the past two years, over 100 people have died in the state of Florida from CO poisoning. In most cases, it involved portable generator use after the hurricanes. In almost all cases, a CO alarm could have possibly prevented the deaths.

I had not thought of that.

I was also wondering why you had said all dwellings but now it males perfect sense.
 

steve66

Senior Member
Location
Illinois
Occupation
Engineer
Good statistic Bryan. That makes sense for Florida, and maybe the gulf coast, but I'm still not sure that means we should require them in every house in every state.

I know other states have disasters too, but I bet you won't find the number of deaths (or portable generators) as high in central states.

It's kind of scary - People who aren't smart enough to put the generator outside are buying instructions off the internet on how to connect generators to their entire house with a $100 in wire and plugs.

Steve
 

pierre

Senior Member
In Central states and northern states, people are dying from CO due to them using supplemental heating means and not having adequate means of fresh air. These are usually people who may not be able to afford the proper means and they are using kerosene or other similar types of supplemental heat. Especially during cold spells and power outages. That is one of the reasons NYS has increased its CO protection requirements.
 

bphgravity

Senior Member
Location
Florida
I have been researching this topic since this thread was originally posted and felt I needed to correct my original post while providing some other information.

As it turns out there were officially only 6 deaths attributed to CO poisoning from generators after the 2004 hurricane season. (I feel weird typing "only") However there were 167 non-fatal hospitalizations. There were two additional deaths from CO poisoning not from generators when a man succumbed to CO from the use of candles during the power outages and from a man who fell asleep in his car running in the garage - it is assumed he was trying to relax in the a/c as it was 95 degrees the following week after hurricane Charley. It was not attributed to suicide.

I also learned that there are approximately 1,600 deaths each year to CO poisoning in the US (Journal of American Medical Assoc.) Of these only 200 are reported (by the CPSC) to relate to equipment/ventilation malfunction. Over 10,000 are diagnosed each year with CO-related injuries. Based on this information it appears many more people die each year from CO poisoning than those that do from electrocution. :(
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top