To catch a silent killer that often strikes in winter, a growing number of states are requiring homes to install carbon monoxide detectors.
While smoke alarms have been required in homes for decades, similar devices to detect carbon monoxide (CO) -- a deadly, odorless and colorless gas -- have been slower to catch on. That's changing.
This year, at least three states (Kentucky, Oregon and Washington) began reguiring CO detectors in newly built residences, and two states (California and Wisconsin) began requiring them also in existing single-family homes. In January, Arkansas will start requiring them in new homes.
"We're seeing more states address this issue," partly because of well-publicized deaths from CO poisoning, says Scott Hendrick of the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Many of the laws requiring CO detectors for homes passed within the past five years, and Connecticut passed one this year requiring them in schools.
"These laws are greatly needed, as it is impossible to detect carbon monoxide without a CO alarm," says Deborah Hansen of First Alert, an Illinois-based company that makes the devices. Most alarms cost $15 to $20 and need to be replaced every five years.
Carbon monoxide can seep into a home without residents seeing or smelling anything when fuel-burning devices such as gas stoves, furnaces, fireplaces and generators are improperly used or when cars are left running in an attached garage. Exposure symptoms include headache, fatigue, nausea and dizziness.
Nearly 500 deaths and 15,000 emergency room visits result each year from unintentional CO exposure in the USA, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"We see a large number of CO deaths after storms and power outages, because people bring generators into their homes or garages," says Patty Davis of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. She says generators need to remain far away from the house.
Some remain skeptical of the devices. Given their ongoing costs vs. the number of CO deaths, "it doesn't make sense" to require them in all homes, says Larry Brown, director of codes and standards for the National Association of Home Builders. The NAHB helped defeat a building-code effort last year to extend the CO device requirement to existing homes.
