Carbon monoxide alarms will become compulsory in homes from September 1st onwards in an effort to prevent deaths from the poisonous gas known as the “silent killer”.
The change in building regulations will require householders to ensure alarms are fitted when new or replacement boilers, fires, heaters and stoves are installed. Building firms will be required to make sure the alarms are fitted in new homes. Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan will shortly sign into law changes to the building regulations which set out new legal requirements for the use and installation of stoves and heaters in buildings.
Detectors
Carbon monoxide detectors will be required to be located in rooms where appliance are fitted, as well as in or near bedrooms. They will also be mandatory in habitable rooms where a chimney is attached to any heat-producing appliance. Latest figures indicate that about six people at year die as a result of preventable carbon monoxide poisoning.
The colourless, odourless and poisonous gas can cause illness or death. When inhaled into the body it combines with the blood, preventing it from absorbing oxygen.
It can arise when a fossil fuel fails to combust properly due to an inadequate supply of air as a result of improper installation of heating appliances or faulty stoves. Mr Hogan said indications are that the majority of fatalities appear to occur with solid fuel appliances.
“An analysis of all the available information leads to the conclusion that the use of carbon monoxide detectors to the proper standard and with adequate in-built visual and audible warning systems would give added protection to homeowners,” he said.
The move will be welcomed by campaigners who have lobbied the Government to introduce more stringent safety regulations.
Mandatory introduction
Jazz singer Honor Heffernan, whose mother and sister died a decade ago after being exposed to carbon monoxide in the kitchen of their home in Stoneybatter, Dublin, has been calling for the mandatory introduction of detectors for several years.
Alarms typically cost between €25 for battery-operated alarms to €85 for mains-powered models.
