(New York-WABC, February 17, 2004) -- If you don't have a carbon monoxide detector in your home you and your family are at risk. There are laws requiring those detectors, but still, many families are not protected.
Dave Evans is here to explain what you need to know.
This winter in the city we've had four deaths due to carbon monoxide poisoning, and dozens have been sickened. That's motivated some action now at City Hall. Action that some say is long overdue.
Emmanuel McGee, 10, may have saved his mom's life on Monday when he heard a carbon monoxide detector going off on the second floor of his family's home. He ran for help, and everyone is OK.
Two men in Murray Hill weren't so lucky on Sunday. There was no detector in their building, and after a history of furnace-related problems here the residents are so upset they're moving out. A detector would have cost only $30 or $40.
Carbon Monoxide is odorless and colorless, in the case of the McGee family the gas leaked into their house from a generator at a renovation project two doors away. And Emmanuel's family is glad they installed a detector eight years ago.
At City Hall, a bill to require everyone to have such detectors has languished in committe for more than a year. But other bills had higher priorities.
The previous mayoral administration resisted requiring detectors in all apartments, it was seen as too bureaucratic. Bloomberg though is backing the bill.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg: "I think the City Council should pass legislation requiring smoke detectors, which we already have, but certainly carbon monoxide as well."
The mayor has some advice; don't use an oven to heat your home, make sure you have good ventilation, and also make sure your car's tailpipe isn't blocked by snow.
Still no word yet on when the City Council might take up that carbon monoxide detector bill.
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