You Can't Prevent a CO Leak. But Now You Can Ensure Your Family Walks Out Hours Before Danger.

Children's bodies are smaller and breathe faster. A child absorbs up to 3x more than an adult in the same room. At a CO concentration where an adult gets a slight headache, children can already lose consciousness. But the CO alarm threshold was designed for the average adult. Not a child. That's why the CDC reports that children under the age of 9 have the highest rate of carbon monoxide poisoning fatality. Most are found in their bed, while their detector hasn't gone off.

CDC Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Data; Journal of Pediatric Emergency Care

A standard CO detector set to the minimum 70 PPM threshold can sit at 69 PPM for days and never make a sound. So your family can be breathing CO at levels which can kill within a few hours, without ever knowing. In fact, just 4 hours at 30 PPM is more dangerous than one hour at 70 PPM. Which means the current 70PPM legal minimum is absolutely useless.

CDC Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Data; Journal of Pediatric Emergency Care

The 70 PPM standard wasn't written by doctors or public health officials. It was written in response to an atmospheric temperature inversion that happened in Chicago and Los Angeles from 1992-1995 and caused a wave of nuisance alarms. Emergency crews and gas companies were overwhelmed. So UL raised the alarm threshold to stop the phone from ringing. And detector manufacturers exploited it and lobbied to not update that standard, it hasn't been updated since. Canada's CSA 6.19 standard uses the same 70 PPM alarm point.

NCOAA Petition to CPSC, December 17, 2024; CSA 6.19 alarm requirements

In the US alone, over 100,000 people are poisoned by CO every year. Most of them had a detector. In Canada, carbon monoxide is linked to an estimated 300 deaths and 200 hospitalizations every year. A peer-reviewed study tested 30 of the most common home detectors and found a 57% overall failure rate, including 40% that failed unsafe. Meaning they never alarmed at all, not even at 70 PPM. Because in this industry, there is no meaningful enforcement, no post-sale testing, and no accountability. So some manufacturers don't even build to the minimum standard and still get away with it.

PMC Peer-Reviewed Study: Residential CO Detector Failure Rates; CDC CO Poisoning Surveillance Data; Government of Canada, Health Infobase

Unlike the US, Europe has updated its CO detector standard 8 times since 1992. The UK requires monitoring at 10 PPM, and alarm at 30 PPM. Other countries followed. The results? If we just take the UK as an example: The UK has 2000 CO poisoning cases a year, the US has 100,000. So while the US population is just 5x bigger, its CO poisoning rates are 50x bigger.

EN 50291 European CO Alarm Standard Revision History; UK Health Security Agency CO Data;

Health Canada's residential indoor air quality guideline sets the maximum carbon monoxide exposure at 25 PPM averaged over 1 hour, and 10 PPM averaged over 24 hours. Yet under the CSA 6.19 standard, a standard alarm is designed not to sound at a constant 30 PPM for 30 days. And at 70 PPM, it can take between 60 and 240 minutes to go off. The standard itself states that these devices "are not intended to provide an alarm signal during long-term, low-level CO exposures."

Health Canada, Residential Indoor Air Quality Guideline: Carbon Monoxide; CSA 6.19 Residential Carbon Monoxide Alarming Devices