Berkeley Weighs Legislation on Carbon Monoxide
Death of teenager raises issue
Debra Levi Holtz, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, December 6, 1999
©2000 San Francisco Chronicle

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/12/06/MN44242.DTL


BERKELEY -- As Berkeley considers whether to require landlords to install carbon monoxide detectors in apartments in the aftermath of the recent death of a teenager, city officials are finding that there is confusion over how much of the gas poses a threat.

The federal government has not issued an official standard for permissible exposure levels to carbon monoxide in residences, and widely ranging guidelines have been set by local health officials, state agencies and industry.

As a result, some people question whether it is safe to rely on carbon monoxide detectors that may not be activated until the odorless gas has reached beyond what some experts consider to be unsafe levels.

Nevertheless, Berkeley Mayor Shirley Dean will ask the City Council tomorrow to look into a law making carbon monoxide sensors mandatory in apartment buildings. Similar laws are already in place in Chicago, Albany, New York and Toronto and in the states of New Jersey and West Virginia.

``If you can save someone's life, it's worth it,'' said Robert Cabrera, president of the Berkeley Property Owners Association. Cabrera said he expects that landlords will support the idea, particularly if the cost of the sensors -- which ranges from $20 to $50 each -- can be passed on to tenants in annual rent increases.

Dean's action comes after the death of 17-year-old Seetha Vemireddy, who died after a blocked vent in her wall heater spewed carbon monoxide measuring 2,000 parts per million through her downtown Berkeley apartment on November 24.

``We want to do the right thing for our residents,'' said Dean, acknowledging the controversy over the reliability of carbon monoxide devices. ``We'll have to rely on the advice of people who work in this field.''

The Environmental Protection Agency has warned consumers not to depend solely on the detectors, but to inspect furnaces and other indoor fuel-burning heaters regularly. The agency sets outdoor standards for carbon monoxide but has no authority over indoor pollution.

Dean wants city officials to investigate whether the detectors are reliable.

Dr. Poki Namkung, Berkeley's health officer, considers the presence of more than 35 ppm of the gas to be dangerous. That same level measured in a dwelling alerts Pacific Gas and Electric Co. inspectors to look immediately for the source of the carbon monoxide.

State agencies follow a stricter standard. The California Air Resources Board recommends that exposure to carbon monoxide be no more than 9 ppm over an eight-hour period and not higher than 20 ppm in an hour. Immediate evacuation should take place, according to the Air Resources Board, when indoor gas levels reach 40 ppm.

In the absence of a national standard, Underwriters Laboratories, an independent consumer product-testing organization that regulates carbon monoxide detectors, has set the de facto national standard.

Under the Underwriters Laboratories guidelines, the gas sensors will set off an alarm when more than 35 ppm is detected in a home over a 30-day period. They also require that the alarms are set off when 100 ppm is measured over 90 minutes.

Industry officials say that it is at that higher level that people begin to manifest headaches. More medical research is needed, they say, to determine the health risks of breathing in low levels of the gas.

Carbon monoxide sensors are available in both battery-operated and plug-in models at most hardware stores.

When they first came on the market in 1993, the lowest threshold for setting off an alarm was 15 ppm over eight hours. That was changed in 1995 to cover a 30-day span and then again in 1998 to the current standard.

The reason for making the detectors less sensitive, industry officials say, was that at low numbers they could be quickly set off by outdoor pollution or a traffic jam outside an apartment.

``If alarms reacted to any levels of carbon monoxide, fire departments would be swamped with alarm calls,'' said Bob Wheatley, spokesman for First Alert, the nation's leading maker of the sensors.


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