The legislation affects some college dorms and assisted living facilities.

By Mason Adams and Laurence Hammack
The Roanoke Times
Copyright 2007 The Roanoke Times
All Rights Reserved

RICHMOND, Va. — The Virginia Senate approved legislation Tuesday that would require some college dormitories and assisted living facilities to install carbon monoxide detectors.

On a 40-0 vote, the Senate mandated installation of the devices by 2010. The legislation affects dorms and assisted living facilities served by fuel-burning appliances that might leak the dangerous gas. In an effort to protect residents from carbon monoxide from nearby vehicles, the bill also applies to the designated buildings that have an attached carport or garage or are adjacent to a parking space.

Although a similar bill failed to win the endorsement of the Virginia Housing Commission, advocates cited an incident last summer in which one person died and dozens fell ill from a carbon monoxide leak in a Roanoke College dormitory.

"I see no need to prolong the issue," said Charles Singleton, chairman of the legislative committee for the Virginia State Firefighters Association. "We don't need any more fatalities."

Sponsored by Sen. Frank Ruff, R-Mecklenburg County, the bill (SB 1077) requires the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development to establish regulations requiring the installation of carbon monoxide detectors. It also calls for a group of firefighters, rescue workers, landlords and tenants to develop a public education program focused on the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning and preventative measures.

The measure now goes to the House of Delegates.

Last summer, carbon monoxide from a faulty water heater in the Sections dormitory at Roanoke College permeated the three-story building.

Walter Vierling, a 91-year-old retired pastor from Giles County, died in the dorm room he was staying in for a church conference. More than 100 other dorm occupants were taken to local hospitals for treatment or observation.

Shortly after the incident, Roanoke College spent $50,000 to install carbon monoxide detectors in every building on campus.

Most of the money went to high-grade alarms to be wired directly into the school's security system. Those alarms are considered more reliable than the commercially available ones, which according to several studies are sometimes prone to failure.

The school has installed 42 high-grade monitors, but they have yet to be wired and programmed, college spokeswoman Teresa Gereaux said. Until the alarms go online by the end of the month, the school will continue to rely on the free-standing alarms it purchased from stores in the days after the leak.

So far, those alarms have gone off at least three times. In one case, a blocked chimney in a campus fraternity house caused a backup of carbon monoxide. The other two cases were false alarms.

Gereaux said Roanoke College plans to use both types of alarms in the future. Ruff's bill does not specify the type of alarm required.

A 2002 study by the Gas Technology Institute found problems with six of 10 commercially available carbon monoxide alarms. Some of the detectors issued false alarms, the research found, and others failed to detect hazardous levels of the gas.

Questions about reliability were one reason the Housing Commission declined to endorse a similar bill that was introduced last year by Ruff and sent to the agency for study.

Alarm manufacturers say that the Gas Technology Institute study used older models and that technology has since improved.

At least 11 states have laws requiring the installation of carbon monoxide detectors to some degree, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Ruff, whose effort to require detectors predates the Roanoke College incident, said the most important part of the bill is educating the public about the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning.

More than 15,000 people are treated annually in hospital emergency rooms for exposure to the deadly gas, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates, and about 500 people a year die from it.