New carbon monoxide alarm requirement on Jan. 1
SEATTLE (AP) - A new requirement for carbon monoxide detectors in Washington homes takes effect on Jan. 1.
State law has required the alarms in new construction beginning in 2011. The 2013 law requires the detectors in all existing residences, including apartments, condos, hotels, dormitories and residential institutions.
Owners of single-family homes will be required to have the detectors when their home is sold or when they apply for a remodeling permit.
The state Legislature ordered changes in the building code after widespread power outages from a December 2006 windstorm in the Puget Sound area led to hundreds of people being treated for carbon monoxide poisoning. Eight deaths were blamed on fumes from people using generators or lighting barbecues inside their homes.
"Those kind of tragedies pushed them to require alarms in residential buildings," said Dana Catts, education specialist with the Seattle Fire Department.
"Because of the frequency of winter storms in our area, it's important to have carbon monoxide alarms, because you can't see it or smell it."
The fumes are more of a problem in homes that have been sealed for energy conservation.
"Homes today are built so tightly there's not a lot of interchange with outside air," she said
Immigrant families are more at risk if they've come from cultures with well-ventilated homes or traditions of cooking over indoor charcoal, Catts said.
"It can happen to anybody who brings in the wrong type of heating, like barbecue grills, or generators," she said.
Like smoke detectors, carbon monoxide alarms will save lives, Catts said.
"It's just another important safety device that will help alert people," she said. "You don't know it's happening until you get flu-like symptoms."
The carbon monoxide alarms look similar to smoke alarms. They can be hard-wired or battery powered. They are sold where smoke alarms are sold and some models are combined with a smoke alarm. Prices range from $25 to $40.
Follow installation directions, but generally alarms should be located outside bedrooms, with one alarm on each level of a home.
State law has required the alarms in new construction beginning in 2011. The 2013 law requires the detectors in all existing residences, including apartments, condos, hotels, dormitories and residential institutions.
Owners of single-family homes will be required to have the detectors when their home is sold or when they apply for a remodeling permit.
The state Legislature ordered changes in the building code after widespread power outages from a December 2006 windstorm in the Puget Sound area led to hundreds of people being treated for carbon monoxide poisoning. Eight deaths were blamed on fumes from people using generators or lighting barbecues inside their homes.
"Those kind of tragedies pushed them to require alarms in residential buildings," said Dana Catts, education specialist with the Seattle Fire Department.
"Because of the frequency of winter storms in our area, it's important to have carbon monoxide alarms, because you can't see it or smell it."
The fumes are more of a problem in homes that have been sealed for energy conservation.
"Homes today are built so tightly there's not a lot of interchange with outside air," she said
Immigrant families are more at risk if they've come from cultures with well-ventilated homes or traditions of cooking over indoor charcoal, Catts said.
"It can happen to anybody who brings in the wrong type of heating, like barbecue grills, or generators," she said.
Like smoke detectors, carbon monoxide alarms will save lives, Catts said.
"It's just another important safety device that will help alert people," she said. "You don't know it's happening until you get flu-like symptoms."
The carbon monoxide alarms look similar to smoke alarms. They can be hard-wired or battery powered. They are sold where smoke alarms are sold and some models are combined with a smoke alarm. Prices range from $25 to $40.
Follow installation directions, but generally alarms should be located outside bedrooms, with one alarm on each level of a home.
Unbelievable, so all of us who could not sell our homes because they were worthless, and had to rent them out now, have to put Carbon Monoxide alarms in our rental homes, so dumb people dont' bring in their BBQ's to heat the homes? Â Lovely. Â These people who brought generators or BBQ's in their homes were stupid!!!!!!!! Â Â Laws do not fix STUPID. Â
I'm trying to find the link to see if I can get a free co2 monitor. I don't have any smoke detectors that work either.
Our CO detector went off last winter. Â It turned out that the heat exchanger on our gas furnace had rusted out. Â I don't know what would have happened if we did not have a CO detector, but I don't think it would have been good. So it is not just protection for people using charcoal grills or generators inside, it can protect against heating system failures.Â
Moron legislators trying to stop natural selection. Common sense says don't bring a propane grill into the house and light it. If you lack that basic common sense, then all the laws in the world can't stop you from killing yourself through stupidity.
Idiotic WA lawmakers. The folks they think they're going to be saving aren't smart enough to know they shouldn't run a generator indoors, so what makes them think the same brain-donors are going to start reading the news and following yet another useless law? Better publish the law on the back of malt liquor cans, multiple languages too, don't forget.
Everybody has missed the most damning reason against the installation of Carbon Monoxide (CO) alarms and THAT is that they are not very reliable.
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I used to work in a facility that required CO alarms on compressed breathing air systems. These units were required to alarm at 10 ppm (parts per million) of CO in the air. That is 0.001% of the ambient air and that is a fairly difficult analysis. The units I eventually installed required recalibration/certification on a monthly basis and replacement of the active cell on a yearly basis. Compare this to the original units that required recalibration every few days. My monitors were sensitive enough that I could tell the time of day because they would give an increased reading from the rush hour traffic.
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The household units required by this act are almost useless. I have seen tests where the household units are engulfed by the smoke from a smoldering fire and never alarmed. I have seen tests where the CO concentration was reliably measured at 100 ppm and the household units never made a peep. But when this FACT was brought up with the regulators they stated that having the monitors more sensitive would mean that they would go off more often and create problems of "false" (not really false) alarms.
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If you REALLY want a carbon monoxide alarm you need one that is rated for low levels and these units are NOT cheap. Add in that they have a useful life of less than two years and you see why the almost worthless household models are such a big hit...for the manufacturers. Government regulators haven't a clue but have no problem foisting off on an unsuspecting public the false security of a CO monitor that is more likely to fail than it is to alert you top a problem.
And the people that need to be eliminated from the gene pool are now going to be protected and allowed to dumb the rest of the pool downâ¦. Only in a nanny sate does this happen. And they wander why the city of Seattle is the way it is.
Did we get to vote on this and I missed it. Stupidest law I have seen.
The never ending nanny government leaps from conclusion to conclusion, each one to some extent to correct the previous one. due to heat loss the buildings were sealed and the number of windows restricted. In the north we suffer from lack of sun light so that was relaxed, but now we have stale air, radon and carbon monoxide.
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We hear, it's for your own good, whether you like it or not, if you can afford it or not. why is it hard to break even on rental property with demands for this and that and escape clauses so renters can skip?
If you're dumb enough to use a BBQ indoors, you deserve what you get. Â Yet another example of the nanny state in action to protect absolute morons. Â We pay our politicians to write laws that protect us all...Not just the idiots around us. Â
@Un named: Well this is one of those laws in our state that does protect us all. I live in a large apartment building. I need protection from "those morons" that smoke in bed, leave their BBQ going on the patio, thereby starting the building on fire. (There have been two such alarms since I have moved in three years ago. Thankfully no damage just a lot of smoke and a good scare!) Or those who have their generator going during power outages, gassing me out. I am thankfully lucky to live in an apartment building that is fully sprinklered and I have insurance to cover any damages from such "unfortunate accidents."
@usnrbb
I agree that there needs to be rules about these things but, making all homes put in CO detectors is just stupid. All houses need interconnected smoke detectors. This has been the code for over 10 years and there is no need if you do not have gas appliances to have the extra cost of a CO detector. If you have any gas appliances you must have CO detectors and this has been code for the last 10 years also. If you live in an apartment that has been built in the last 10 years it will have an interconnected smoke alarm that will alert the building if one of the units goes off. We do not need the government protecting everyone for their own stupidity. People need to be responsible for their own actions.
I just hope ours actually work when they need to. So far they've activated twice for no apparent reason.
 @chuckh0308 If mine were going off, I'd have two questions about it, 1) could it possibly be accurate and there is CM around from something? or 2) Is it still under warranty because if there absolutely is no CM then the device is defective?
 @Commenter87643  Our neighbors have the same ones and theirs go off easily too. I think they are just overly sensitive and the small amount of CO that sets them off is gone by the time anyone can check for it. One is right by the garage too. Don't get me wrong, I think they are a good idea to have, especially if you have gas appliances and a garage, but like smoke detectors they can be a little annoying sometimes.
 @chuckh0308  @Commenter87643 Actually, they are quite INsensitive. The original CO monitors made for residences had too many alarms so the specifications were relaxed considerably. Current models are such that they either require a HUGE concentration of carbon monoxide or else a high concentration for an extended period of time.
And to inject some levity into this, does anyone know if these detectors will also detect the presence of methane from flatulence? Not that it actually causes death, just makes some wish they were dead!
 @Commenter87643 Generally not.
Indoor BBQ's and generators huh - http://www.weather.com/health/carbon-monoxide-sickness-20121204
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Any indoor environment using anything mechanical (gas heat/boilers/stove/etc.) that creates or potentially emits CO2 should have a detector.
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 @Kerchaktic CO or carbon monoxide! CO2 is carbon dioxide.
"December 2006 windstorm in the Puget Sound area led to hundreds of people being treated for carbon monoxide poisoning. Eight deaths were blamed on fumes from people using generators or lighting barbecues inside their homes."
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In 2006 the population of Washington state was 6,395,798 [+/-].  For the sake of argument, lets assume that "hundreds" means less than one thousand, but I'll use 1000.  The news article should read: "December 2006 windstorm in the Puget Sound area led to .000156% of people being treated for carbon monoxide poisoning. .00000125% of the state's population died from people using generators or lighting barbecues inside their homes."  Does anyone else see how stupidly silly the government reaction was?  We all get to invest in a device to protect a minuscule percent of the population from themselves.  No doubt the manufacturers of monoxide detectors are laughing all the way to the bank.
@PNWF: Maybe you should take a little bit of that "Liberal Education" of yours to heart. Try reading John Donne's Meditation XVII, herein abridged for your edification: "All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness....No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
 @PNWF Completely insignificant number until it's your mother or sister or child that dies.
 @Commenter87643  @PNWF Why not protection for lightning strikes or making all walkers day-glo vests so they won't get hit by cars.  The intended targeted group is the lest likely to install monitors.  Next you can start jailing violators so you can protect them.
 @Commenter87643 Bleeding heart nonsense.  Educate your mother, sister, or child.
I think everyone missed the point. It is for safety. I live in an older home off an alley way and if someone sits in the alley with thier vehicle running the exhaust will come into the home because that is were the chimney is also at.
This law is for STUPID ignorant people that are dumb enough to use a generator or barbecues in their homes.
Why should the rest of us be punished for it???????????????????????????????
 @jack60 And what happens if your stupid neighbor goes unconscious due to CO and while his house burns down, your house catches fire as well? Do you people think before you get outraged?Â
 @lakeview SO if his house started to burn, then I think a seperate piece of electronic called a fire alarm/smoke detector would go off. Don't ya think? Doesn't seem too relevant.
@Commenter87643 @lakeview @Zoso So since she needs some help, do we require *all* people to have that same kind of help? Shouldn't we just make things safe for people that need those extra safety measures? If your neighbor needs a personal safety alert button (panic button), do we require that *all* people have alert buttons, whether or not they actually need them?
 @lakeview I'm afraid I don't get your point.
 @lakeview  @Zoso I hear my neighbor's smoke detector OFTEN, and that's kind of a case in point. She's mentally ill, but not so bad as to be institutionalized. Shall we take away her freedom to live in her own house, or just try to make sure she's reasonably safe in it?
 @Zoso When was the last time you heard your neighbor's smoke detector go off? Have a better day.Â
How come we get to vote on an issue that is a civil rights issue, and should not go to a public vote (e.g., Ref 74), but we can't vote on stuff like this that actually does affect what goes on in our homes and forces us to spend yet more money to protect people who can't help themselves?
 @SusieQ You have the right to challenge the law in court if you wish. Each American has that right. It's in the Constitution.Â
@lakeview @SusieQ Good idea if one could even afford a lawyer.
 @SusieQ Because some of the processes of our laws go through legislators that we elected.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civics
Would be a good place to start reading.
 @Commenter87643  @SusieQ Start reading the federalist papers, the Declaration and Constitution to see how government has removed persona responsibility from the vocabulary.
You guys will whine and complain over the most silly things. It really says something about yourselves.Â
 @lakeview About the nanny state making laws to protect us from ourselves because we're completely stupid and don't know how to take care of ourselves. Yeah that is silly, isn't it?
 @Zoso It's really not worth arguing about anymore. The law is on the books, just like Obama's re-election and the Supreme Court upholding Obamacare. You can whine all you want.Â
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I'm going to say it once more and then stop: This isn't just about the people in the homes that poison themselves from their stupidity. Some homes are close to one another especially in the city. I don't want my home to burn down because my neighbors all collapsed to death from CO. If they are using a coal grill, that could cause a fire and affect an entire neighborhood.Â
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Seriously you guys need to learn when to pick your battles. This is pathetic.Â
@lakeview It *is* silly, isn't it? It's silly that the lawmakers feel the need to insert their laws into every part of our lives. They don't trust us to look out for ourselves. What next - a law telling us what to eat and how often to eat?
 @Silvia  @lakeview Well, Seattle is already pretty much going there...banning trans-fats, anybody? Next it will be soda just like in NY.
 @lakeview What, you mean like the Patriot Act? Yeah, I did speak out against that and have since it came about. BTW, what's Obama doing to get rid of that anyhow? Oh....he passed the NDAA, an even MORE draconian, anti-freedom piece of legislation? Dang....guess he's no different than the last guy, huh? When are you idiots going to get it? Nobody, D or R, is for your freedom. Being a cheerleader for any of them makes you look like a total fool, and insane to boot.
 @dg54321  @lakeview That's not entirely true. If you aren't seatbelted in, you aren't the only one that will potentially be affected in an accident. Because of your lack of seatbelt, you may more completely lose control of your auto in an accident, which can easily harm other people. Also, if you have other people in the car with you, whether you are the driver or a passenger, your unbelted body then becomes a lose object within the car with the very real potential of inflicting harm on another person.
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Parents used to think nothing of holding a child while both were passengers in the car thinking that in an accident that they could hang onto the child and that if they were belted, it was good enough. Now, I think more people understand that the forces in an accident can rip the kid from their arms. Or it may just be that the child restraint laws are somewhat effective in getting parents NOT to do that.
 @dg54321  Yeah, I bet you were out there protesting all the things that the Bush administration did that actually DID compromise the freedom of Americans for generations to come.Â
 @lakeview While this article isn't about trans fats, the point is that I should have the FREEDOM to decide whether or not I want to eat trans fats when I go out, when I eat in, however I want to eat. It's NONE OF THE GOVERNMENT'S BUSINESS. The more power people allow the government to take, the less free we become. Freedom is not something that can be taught, it's a belief. The belief that I can decide what's best for me better than everyone else can. I can't imagine how someone could come to the conclusion that the rest of the world is better at deciding their fate than they are. If I want to decide NOT to buy a CO (not sure why we started calling them CM detectors) detector, that should be MY right. If I die from CO poisoning, then that was my choice, wasn't it? If I don't want to wear a seatbelt, that is MY choice. I am only hurting myself if I get into a crash. The only time a law should be made is to protect others from my actions or inaction. When you allow the government to make laws to protect people from themselves you have a "kindly tyranny", which is exactly what we have in this country. People in power thinking they know better than the masses on how to live their own lives, when they've never lived their life for a single day. It's elitism at it's worst, snobbery and it is NOT freedom.
 @dg54321  @Silvia  @lakeview I'm absolutely certain that Seattle hasn't banned people from using trans-fats in their own homes, only from licensed purveyors of foods using it.
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I also am certain that NY didn't ban the sale or purchase of 2 liter bottles of soda at the grocery store.
 @dg54321 Oh and NYC didn't ban soda either. Once again you need to look at the details. Soda was not banned at all. Some places limit serving sizes to 16oz of soda. You can still buy 2L cola in stores. You can also buy as many 16oz sizes of soda that you want. There is no ban.Â
 @dg54321 Trans fats were banned in restaurants. You can still buy all the trans fats containing food in stores and supermarkets. You can still buy Crisco and other trans fat shorting as well.Â
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Trans fats are very bad for you. Personally I'm glad that the french fries I get at (pick your favorite fast food place) use natural cooking oil or a natural animal fat, not something created in the lab which has been proven very dangerous.Â
No real refuting of what was said. Are you claiming Seattle has NOT banned trans-fats in food? Because I can easily prove that they did. No, typical drivel from such as you who feel that government should intrude into every space in your life and tell you what to do. I never wanted the government to be my surrogate parent. If you do, then there is something wrong with YOU that you are so afraid of freedom and self-determination.
 @dg54321  @Silvia  You guys are crazy with a capital K. Enjoy your tin foil hat and John Stossel shows.Â
 @Silvia  @lakeview No, what's not trusted is that people will look out for OTHER people. A lot of people die each year from carbon monoxide poisoning, and those deaths could have been prevented if experienced people had taught the inexperienced people what not to do. Didn't happen.
 @Commenter87643  @Silvia  @lakeview Darwinian solutions are often good.