New standards put everyone’s health in jeopardy

I’m not a doctor nor do I play one on TV. But seriously, I do have a personal friend who will live the rest of their life with damage to their health because of carbon monoxide exposure.

Here are crucial points you need to know about CO detectors:

# 1 When you read about how much carbon monoxide exposure is “ok,” it typically refers to “healthy adults.” Unborn children, young children, older adults and pets can be affected by commonly permissible levels.

# 2 Presumably to reduce calls to fire stations, utilities and emergency response teams when the levels of CO are not “life threatening,” standards were relaxed several years ago so that alarms now wait to sound until higher levels of CO than with the previous standards.

# 3 The gas sensors in some CO alarms have a limited and indeterminable life span, typically two to five years. The test button on a CO alarm only tests the battery and circuitry, not the sensor.

# 4 Various models of CO detectors have been recalled. Go to:

http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Recalls/

and enter the word carbon or monoxide in the search box.

Tip # 1 If my buyers insist on going with the inexpensive big box models I encourage them to at least buy  2 – 3 different models, preferably with different detection methods, rather than bet their lives on one particular model.

Tip # 2 Better yet, I encourage them to go online and buy models that will alarm at lower “parts per million.” It is also a good idea to buy a model that displays “parts per million” and put it somewhere that you will check what it says.

Don’t trust your families’ health to a cheap detector that may not alarm until their health has been compromised.