Do not share your home with a portable generator. Using a generator indoors will kill. That is the strong message from the Consumer Product Safety Commission as reported in the St. Pete Times.
After a record number of carbon monoxide deaths, federal regulators require a label for gas-powered portable generators.
Portable generators can be a lifesaver in the aftermath of a hurricane.
They can also kill you if used improperly.
Federal consumer safety regulators announced on Wednesday a sobering label for virtually all new portable generators:
“Using a generator indoors WILL KILL YOU IN MINUTES.”
The safety measure, effective immediately, comes after 55 people died nationwide last year from carbon monoxide poisoning produced by portable generators, a record. That’s up from 18 in 2001, 40 in 2002 and 36 in 2003, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Almost all the deaths were easily avoidable, experts say. Operating generators outdoors, away from living areas and garages, eliminates nearly all the risk of dying from carbon monoxide poisoning.
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