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Common causes of carbon monoxide poisoning include: Furnaces/HVAC Units PREVENTION: While no prevention technique is foolproof, smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors can make a difference in your home. But as with all prevention devices, if such devices are not properly maintained - the batteries kept fresh, or disconnected - they won’t make a difference. One of the most serious situations for accidental carbon monoxide poisoning is in space heaters in rental apartments or in hotel rooms. Space heaters are not just something found in older apartments. Stand alone heating units also include on the wall heating systems (typically without thermostats) that you find in a high percentage of hotel rooms. When you stay in a hotel room with an older type system it is a good policy to check to see if there is a carbon monoxide detector in the room. One recommendation is to travel with a portable carbon monoxide detector, as only a few states have a law requiring CO detectors in hotels, and none in all rooms. Hotels WARNING: Older ski resorts have some of the worst safety records, so be particularly cautious there.
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CARBON MONOXIDE IN HOTELS AND RESORTS: Throughout the United States, hotel rooms are heated with individual heating units, many of which do not even have a thermostat on them. While in a perfect world, such heating units might have no greater risk for carbon monoxide poisoning than any other HVAC unit, the logistics of maintaining a hotel make the risk greater. There will be as many as hundreds of such units in a given property, greatly increasing the risk that the maintenance on such units will be sporadic. Further, the proximity of such units to each other, also increases the risk that the venting of the exhaust from such units, will cross over from the air intake from another unit. Different weather conditions, different wind directions, differential needs for maintenance, all combine to make a hotel room a place that the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning must be considered. Inexpensive CO detectors have been available since 1989, but there is no uniformity of use in hotel rooms. Since 1990, the US Congress has required the installation of smoke detectors in all hotel rooms, but no such mandate exists for carbon monoxide, a far more difficult hazard to detect. Yet a single incident can result in multiple fatalities. New Jersey has a good model law. A hotel must either have a CO detector in each room, in corridors adjacent to the places HVAC equipment is operating, or at a minimum one in each unit that has a self contained heating unit, with this detector connected to an alarm monitoring equipment. The necessity for the monitoring is that someone might be unable to respond to the alarm, or confused about its meaning, because of the exposure to CO. In a recent study, only 11% of hotel chains had installed carbon monoxide detectors in rooms. Footnote to Weaver, L. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Volume 33, Issue 1, pages 23-27, Carbon Monoxide Poisoning at Motels, Hotels, and Resorts. According to that study, only six states had required carbon monoxide detectors in hotels, and no state requires CO alarms in all guest rooms. Faulty lodging operated furnaces or boilers used to heat guest rooms or provide hot water caused 66% of the incidents and boiler heatings spools or spas caused 24%. Examples: - Boiler exhaust was vented into a cul de sac between buildings, and air conditioner sucked the CO into guest rooms. Recent examples: Allentown, PA, a construction crew had erected a plastic tarp over an area where the exhaust from the boiler vented, entrapping the fumes so they were recycled into the hotel ventilation system. One dead, 9 others sickened. Jeffersontown, KY. Carbon monoxide leak was coming from the hotel’s hot water heater. 17 people treated for carbon monoxide exposure. Despite evidence of the preventive value of Detectors, the Guests should consider carrying a CO alarm when they travel. Most CO detectors are portable and could be carried with you when you travel.
Conclusion: At a minimum, hotels should place monitors in every room where there is a fuel burning appliance. CO can spread to other rooms and be distributed throughout a building via a forced air system, or it can be vented outside and entrained. Alarms should be placed in rooms adjacent to those with fuel burning appliances as well as exhaust vents and air intakes. Pool and spa areas have been a particular trouble area, because of faulty pool/spa boilers. Those would be appropriate places for CO alarms. For information on what states have regulations with respect to CO detectors in hotels. States with CO Regulations See also American Hotel and Lodging Association – Special Projects. Engineering analysis of transport anddetection of carbon monoxide.
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What should I do if I suspect CO in my home?
Carbon Monoxide is referred to as CO, because that is the chemical symbol of the molecule, being one atom short of the less deadly, and natural element of the combustion cycle, carbon dioxide, CO2. CO occurs as the result of incomplete combustion, where instead of the normal combustion process, where the fuel containing the carbon atom, combines with two oxygen atoms, only one oxygen atom attaches to the carbon atom, hence CO. The existence of this toxic molecule in the bloodstream, causes potentially catastrophic consequences to the human body, including rapid death. The Brain Injury Law Group is involved with a network of plaintiff's trial lawyers across the United States united by a common interest in serving the rights of persons with traumatic brain injuries and a common commitment to fully understanding the anatomic, medical and psychological aspects of TBI, so we may be of better service to the survivors of brain injury. This network of lawyers are not part of a national law firm. We have separate law practices and are licensed to practice only in our home states. The Brain Injury Law Group is here to listen and for that reason we maintain an 800 number and a staff willing to discuss your case and legal information where appropriate. There is no charge to call. We only represent people on a contingent fee basis and charge a fee only when we recover for the client. For more on Attorney Gordon Johnson, click here. |
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lodging industry has not installed detectors, even in places where they have had incidents.
