Idaho buildings to see new carbon monoxide codes

More than 50 students and teachers were hospitalized following a potentially lethal carbon monoxide leak at an Atlanta, Georgia elementary school Monday. It was traced to a leaky valve in the school’s furnace. No one was seriously hurt.

Connecticut and Maryland are the only two states that require schools to install carbon monoxide detectors, but that may soon change.

According to the International Building Code, buildings that house up to two families are required to have a CO detector installed.

The Idaho Division of Building Safety’s Public Information Officer, Bill Hatch, said the state legislature will consider adoption of the 2012 version of the code in the upcoming session. If approved, it would take effect on January 1, 2014.

“It will require CO detectors in multi-family dwellings – that’s dwellings of three or more units, as well as schools and other commercial structures,” Hatch said.

With the recent Georgia incident that took place at one Georgia school that sent more than 40 children to the hospital with carbon monoxide poisoning, some parents have started to worry.

Although details of that incident have not been released, Hatch said there is no recent history of this sort of incident happening in southeast Idaho schools.

The 2012 building code will not include all buildings or structures built prior to the 2014 implementation.