New CPSC generator label: a good first step

Here's a disturbing statistic:  In the last three months of 2006, there were at least 32 deaths related to carbon monoxide poisoning from portable generators. That's half the number of fatalities that occurred in all of 2005 from generator-related carbon-monoxide poisoning.

Clearly, the public is not getting the message about the dangers of this colorless and odorless — but poisonous — gas and the hazards of using portable generators.   

That's what's prompted the Consumer Product Safety Commission to approve a new danger label on all portable generators. While the new label does not go as far as Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports, has recommended, it is clearly a good first step to alert consumers about the hazards of using generators.    

The new label makes the danger clear, saying "using a generator indoors CAN KILL YOU IN MINUTES." The label, which will be required on all new generators by this summer, must be placed clearly and conspicuously on the generator and on its packaging. The label also tells generator users to "never use inside a home or garage, EVEN IF doors and windows are open." As the CPSC notes in its press release, the carbon monoxide produced by one generator is equal to the CO produced by hundreds of running cars.

Although Consumers Union recommended that the label advise consumers to place generators at least 15 feet from a house or garage, the new label only tells consumers to place them "outside and far away from windows, doors, and vents." CPSC spokeswoman Julie Vallese said the agency didn't want to specify a distance since there are a lot of environmental factors to consider, such as wind.    

The commission now is working on an even broader review of generators that could lead to redesigns to make the product safer to begin with, perhaps by requiring reduced CO emissions and/or automatic shut-off devices if the CO levels get too high. Good ideas, we think. But generators aren't the only source of CO poisoning. Based on the CPSC's latest data, even more deaths — nearly twice as many— result from heating appliances, such as furnaces and portable heaters fueled by liquid propane or natural gas. The same good ideas proposed for generators need to be just as urgently applied to heating products as well. 

—Marc Perton