N.J. Introduces Bill Mandating Carbon Monoxide Detectors In Schools

A New Jersey state senator last week introduced legislation that would require schools in the Garden State to install carbon monoxide detectors, something only required in Connecticut and Maryland now.

Sen. Shirley K. Turner, author of a 1999 New Jersey law requiring homes to have carbon monoxide detectors installed,  is the sponsor of the new bill.

“Recently we have seen incidents across the country where students are evacuated from schools wearing oxygen masks and transported to hospitals because the school simply did not have the correct equipment to detect high levels of carbon monoxide,” Turner, D-Mercer and Hunterdon counties, said in a statement.

“This is an easy fix,” she said. ” By requiring schools to install carbon monoxide detectors, we can help to ensure a safe and healthy learning environment for New Jersey students.”

http://www.njsendems.com/release.asp?rid=4756

The bill, S-2402, would require all New Jersey public and private schools to install carbon monoxide detection devices. The bill would allow for an exemption for any school that is determined to have no potential CO hazard, such as those without heat sources that could potentially emit carbon monoxide fumes.

The bill would require the Commissioner of Community Affairs to set regulations regarding installation and standards of the devices and would require that installation of the devices to be done by local fire officials or the state Division of Fire Safety.

The senator’s press release noted that earlier this month, nearly 50 students and teachers from Finch Elementary School in Atlanta were sent to the hospital with carbon monoxide poisoning. According to WSB-TV in Atlanta, maintenance workers forgot to flip a switch on the school’s boiler, causing it to work overtime and leak high levels of the lethal gas into the public areas and classrooms.

Turner said there have been other instances of schools having undetected high-levels of CO.

Within the past three months, students were also evacuated and hospitalized from schools in Chicago and Philadelphia due to carbon monoxide poisoning. According to a USA Today report, there have been at least 19 carbon-monoxide-related incidents at schools since 2007, causing at least 349 children and staff to be hospitalized.

“If a simple maintenance error can cause dozens of students in Georgia to end up in the hospital, what makes us think that our children are safe from this silent killer?” Turner said. “Just like fire and smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors are critical to ensuring our children’s safety by detecting this poisonous gas early and all of our schools should have them.”