TriBeCa Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Sickens 32

Carbon monoxide poisoning can strike almost anywhere, including a grocery store. This is the case with the TriBeCa carbon monoxide poisoning.

A carbon monoxide leak in New York City sickened 32 people. The people who were in the building in the TriBeCa carbon monoxide poisoning made it out with minor injuries, according to the American Press. The poisoning occurred at the start of the workday Tuesday morning in a building three blocks from the World Trade Center. The building was a grocery store, which had extremely high levels of carbon monoxide. The readings were off the charts, with levels as high as 1,000 parts per million. This can render someone unconscious very quickly. At first, someone made the connection between sick people and a package opened in the basement around 8:30 a.m. They felt that it could have contained poison. When they checked, bringing in a bomb squad and the FBI, it was found there was no poison in the package. It was just salad bowls. The source of the leak was a broken boiler pipe in the basement.

Sometimes the most innocuous situation can cause the greatest harm. Nobody might suspect that 32 people are sick from a broken boiler pipe in a public grocery store. Nobody might suspect that what’s making people sick is carbon monoxide poisoning, when it is. We need to raise awareness about the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning, so people can better be able to recognize when this is the case. This can also be done by installing physical carbon monoxide detectors in buildings, even in businesses. Sometimes people might not think about carbon monoxide poisoning in a public place like a grocery store, even though they might have a detector at home. It is ultimately the responsibility of the store owner or whoever is responsible for maintaining the building to make sure there are carbon monoxide detectors to protect the building’s inhabitants or visitors.

In some states, this is actually the law that people need to have carbon monoxide detectors. The most common law I’ve seen is making sure that carbon monoxide detectors are installed in sleeping areas in residences or anywhere that provides lodging, such as hotels and bed and breakfasts. Also, sometimes they have laws in some places that require carbon monoxide detectors in commercial buildings. Sometimes they require them on boats, too. The problem with most of these laws is that they require carbon monoxide detectors only on new construction and newer buildings, leaving the people in older buildings missing a level of protection. Carbon monoxide poisoning does not discriminate against older and newer buildings and neither should the law. In fact, older buildings or motors might have a greater risk of emitting high, dangerous levels of carbon monoxide than newer buildings with electric stoves or newer boat motors with low carbon monoxide emissions.

In New York, carbon monoxide protection is required in commercial buildings where a carbon monoxide source is present or if there is an attached garage or vehicle. The law applies to all buildings no matter if it is new construction or an existing building.