Mandatory CO Monitor Bill To Get Committee Hearing Thursday

A House committee will hear Thursday a bill that aims to require all homes put up for sale in Colorado, whether new or existing, and all apartments to have carbon monoxide detectors.

HB 1091, named for its sponsors after the Lofgren family of Denver, is expected to draw support from firefighters in addition to state health officials.

"We have lost too many Colorado lives over the past few months," Rep. John Soper,
D-Thornton, a sponsor of the bill, said. "We must do everything we can to prevent these tragedies from occurring again. I am an electrician and I know that the installation of carbon monoxide detectors is a reasonable addition to new homes that can prevent senseless deaths and injuries.”

Soper and cosponsoring Rep. Lois Court, D-Denver, said they are motivated to push the bill after the Lofgren family of Denver died in a west slope carbon monoxide poisoning incident over the Thanksgiving weekend. Since then a University of Denver college student also died of CO poisoning in her apartment.

Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, will carry the bill in the Senate.