Wisconsin Lawmaker Introduces Bill to Require School Districts to Install Carbon Monoxide Detectors

Thursday, March 21st, 2024 -- 9:01 AM

(Natalie Eilbert, Green Bay Press-Gazette) It's been less than a week since Crandon Elementary School traced an "unknown illness" to a faulty furnace and, already, a state representative has introduced a law that would require schools to install carbon monoxide detectors in Wisconsin schools.

According to Natalie Eilbert with the Green Bay Press-Gazette, it took nearly a day for authorities to determine the symptoms sickening students, staff and EMS workers came from a carbon monoxide leak in one of the elementary school's boilers, a length of time that state Rep. David Steffen, R-Howard, said in a press release "could have been avoided with a simple detector."

Steffen announced Tuesday morning the bill would add carbon monoxide detectors to its indoor environmental air quality plan, which all schools are required by law to have.

To his surprise, carbon monoxide detectors weren't included in that plan. Should the bill pass, Wisconsin would only be the sixth state to adopt a bill requiring carbon monoxide detectors in its schools, joining Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, Rhode Island and Utah.

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