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Massachusetts has a new law on the books to that will require Carbon Monoxide (CO) Detectors installed in all residential establishments in the state by March 31st, 2006. Carbon Monoxide is lethal and you never know that it is in the house until it starts to do damage. When my wife was a young girl, she lost her dog to CO poisoning and since we have been married we have always had a detector in the house. It has gone off once when an old truck of mine was left running in the garage, but overall we have never had a problem.

I am not a big fan of government regulation but if we are going to have mandatory smoke alarms it is good we also have mandatory CO alarm.

In the human bloodstream, CO crowds oxygen out of hemoglobin and can cause nausea, dizziness, blinding headaches, disorientation, unconsciousness, brain damage and death.

Hence Nicole’s Law, named after 7-year-old Nicole Garofalo, who died in January 2005 of CO poisoning after snow blocked furnace vents in her Plymouth home. The legislation requires all residential buildings in the state to install CO detectors by March 31.

The law applies to almost all houses, apartments, condominiums and multifamily dwellings – any residential building with an attached garage or that burns fossil fuels like natural gas, gasoline, wood, coal, propane, kerosene and charcoal.
In general, buildings will need to have a detector on every floor that contains living space. They must be placed within 10 feet of any bedroom door. via Cape Cod Times.

To learn more about CO Poisoning, here is a good primer.

If you are looking to buy a CO Detector, click here.

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