A new article titled “Carbon Monoxide Poisoning at Motels, Hotels, and Resorts” by Lindell K. Weaver, MD, and Kayla Deru, BA in The American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Volume 32, Issue 7 (July 2007) states:
"Carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning kills over 200 people every year in the United States...researchers found 68 incidents of CO poisoning occurring at hotels, motels, and resorts between 1989 and 2004. In these incidents, 711 guests, 41 employees or owners and 20 rescue personnel were accidentally poisoned. Of those poisoned, 27 died, 66 developed pathological conditions, and 6 had conditions resulting in a jury verdict....The number of reported incidents of poisoning per year has not decreased over this 15-year interval…While the risk of CO poisoning from a one-night stay to an individual guest is small, the accumulated lifetime risk to individuals who travel frequently would be higher. This risk could approach zero with effective CO prevention measures.”

It would be interesting to learn just how Carbon Monoxide poisoning commonly develops in hotels and if this issue has been considered outside the United States. The study mentions CO alarms and cheap detectors that can be used to measure CO levels...do we know of any hotels that actually use these? An interesting issue to be sure - though the risk of serious poisoning seems small in terms of overall numbers, this does seem to pose risks for frequent travellers, specially if hotels haven't really considered / planned to tackle this risk. Any thoughts / experiences / comments from anyone who's aware of this?


Read the excerpt of the study / article published here