A dramatically sad story to read in 2021 that feels like it happened in 1421. No, I don't think mandatory CO alarms would help here...
https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-carbon-monoxide-poisoning
@kravietz the only thing that could help would be a proper public sector/social safety net *and* regulators with enough clout to put pressure on private companies to either keep the damn power on or provide facilities at their expense to keep people safe when it does go off (to be fair UK Power Networks and SSE Networks do seem to help communities out more when power cuts happen)
So if we mandate a CO alarm in house, that wouldn't help because who places a CO alarm in a garage. If we switch heating to electricity, they will electrocute themselves etc etc.
This is a challenge of people acquiring basic skills to live in a modern technology society in a country that thinks it's OK to have whole communities living basically in 15th century because "personal responsibility"...
@kravietz I'd count education in amongst part of the "proper public sector" - at several points in my life from childhood and during my teens I remember being taught about fire safety, not getting poisoned etc (often the Fire Brigade made films that were shown in high school science lessons), in Europe we usually get taught those skills in our teens..
Precisely that's what I mean — and I was shocked that there are communities in the US that miss this very basic knowledge because nobody told them.
@kravietz it seems Americans are also managing to accidentally poison themselves even outside of emergency situations, simply by leaving newer vehicles with push button ignition idling in the garage and forgetting about them.
I suspect this doesn't happen as often here in Europe (where the same system is widely available on newer cars) simply because fuel isn't cheap so drivers instinctively check their vehicles aren't still running after they have parked them!)
https://driving.ca/auto-news/news/push-button-ignition-carbon-monoxide-poisoning