A coroner has called for a change in health and safety legislation after a tenant died of carbon monoxide poisoning in a newly built block of flats where all the boilers had gas safety certificates.
Maria Ighodalo, 27, was a social housing tenant of London & Quadrant. She died on November 14, 2007, shortly after the block of flats in Upper Norwood, London, was completed.
Coroner Roy Palmer has written to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Health and Safety Executive after the inquest, because of his concerns of a similar tragedy happening again.
The condensing boiler is a common type installed in millions of homes, he said.
Gas control valves on the boiler were pre-set in the factory with no requirement for further checks to be carried out on installation.
Mr Palmer suggested checks should be required on installation.
In a separate tragedy just months later, another tenant, Elouise Littlewood, died of carbon monoxide poisoning in a new-build flat that she co-owned with the Notting Hill housing association. Again, the development had a full set of gas safety certificates.
It is not a legal requirement for landlords to install carbon monoxide alarms, although London & Quadrant has done so as standard in all its new-build homes following Maria Ighodalo’s death.
Peter Todd of Hodge Jones Allen LLP, solicitor for the Ighodalo family, said: “In this case the jury found that the defect in the way the valve in the boiler had been set at the time of manufacture meant that when used it was liable to and did emit colossal amounts of carbon monoxide which were sufficient, despite adequate venting, to kill a neighbour.
“It is a terrible tragedy for this family. About 40 people are killed every year in the UK by carbon monoxide and yet we surprisingly found there are no regulations which require a ECGA test to be done at installation and servicing which would help to prevent deaths.
“I hope the Rule 43 recommendation will be put into law and save lives in the future.”
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Comments
Another tragic and unneccessary death. Our condolances to the family.
Although not a legal requirement to fit CO alarms many Housing Associations now do so as "best practice".
Also vitally important is to make sure that CO alarms are working and sensing gas.
The sensor on a CO alarm has a limited and undeterminable life and needs to be tested with a known source of calibrated test gas. This becomes a legal requirement in the USA from Jan 1st 2011.
The HSE have been aware of the problem since 1994.
BG have sold over 4 million CO alarms since 1996.
Last month the UK Government agreed to have CO alarms fitted in all home at risk as part of the "Green Deal" in 2013. This is on condition that all existing CO alarms are tested.
There have been 18 million CO alarms sold in the UK since 1996, it is estimated that half of these are no longer sensing gas but will appear to be working if the so called "Test Button" is employed. The test button on CO alarms only tests the circuitry and the battery not the sensor.
In recent independent tests 16% of new CO alarms have been found not to be working "out of the box". Between 25 and 100% of installed alarms were found not to be working to the BS EN Standard by leading UK Housing Associations.
Recent HSE test found that 12% of installed alarms still under manufacturers warrantee are not working to Standard and that digital readout alarms are between -33% and +42 % inaccurate.
This equates to 840,000 CO alarms in the UK which are currently not sensing gas.
As well as the risks to the public there are risks to Landlords under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act.
One CO alarm manufacturer, Fire Angel require that their CO alarms are sensor inclusively tested with a source of CO gas on a monthly basis, SF Detection used to require annual tests but no longer do so, AICO/EI change from year to year and Kidde have never requested it.
The industry is in a mess. The trade association for CO alarm manufacturers have required that sensor inclusive testing is included in the manufacturers instructions but not all the members have implemented the direction. They even have a technical standard published reccomending sensor inclusive testing.
The BE EN Standard curenly requires that manufacturers instructions are followed in respect of testing.
If Fire Angel Alarms are fitted the Gas Manager or Landlod may need to produce evidence of monthly sensor inclusive testing if a death went to Court.
The problem here is that CO alarm manufacturers have given extended warrantees of up to seven years knowing full well that it is at best optomistic.
The sensor manufacturers typically give warnings that their product could fail at any time due to outside influences beyond their control such as heat, humidity and pollutants such as cigarette smoke.
As sales of CO alarms increase due to increased government publicity the problem gets bigger. Already deaths have occured with faulty CO alarms in place.
We urge that all Landlords fit a working CO alarm, test it on installation and annually thereafter.