Carbon Monoxide Detectors Studied

The City Council moved a step closer Thursday to putting carbon monoxide detectors in the homes of Los Angeles seniors and disabled by supporting a motion by Councilman Hal Bernson to study the issue.

The unanimous council action asks that the city’s Housing Department make recommendations to the Housing and Community Redevelopment Committee on the possibility of providing qualified residents with the detectors.

Bernson said Thursday that the primary household emitters of carbon monoxide gases are forced-air and gas-fired heating units in homes and apartments.

Although the Gas Co. offers free inspections of these units and furnaces, a number of people are hospitalized annually from exposure to the deadly gas, and others die from contact with it, Bernson said.

Many of the tens of thousands of heating units in the city are more than 50 years old and may be leaking the colorless, odorless gas, he added. The need for a program that provides these detectors, which are similar to smoke detectors, came to Bernson’s attention through a volunteer member of the Council for Aging Housing Committee.