Why don't many hotels install carbon monoxide alarms?

Three carbon monoxide-related deaths at a Bahamas resort have drawn attention to the dangers of odorless gas. In the United States, where it often takes multiple poisonings for hotels to set up alarms, the debate over detection policies has intensified.

There was no not the first guest to fall ill in Room 205. Just when Pawel Markowski thought nothing could shake him more than nearly losing his life to a carbon monoxide leak at a hotel in Catoosa, Okla. , His attorney sent him the fire department report.

"We have already responded to this exact room number two other times in the past two weeks," wrote Denus Benton, Catoosa Fire Chief.

"I don't know what these people were waiting for - someone to die?" said Mr. Markowski, 44, whom a colleague discovered “unconscious” on the floor of his hotel room on March 16, according to medical reports.

Incidents like Mr. Markowski's rarely pierce beyond the local news. But when, in May, a carbon monoxide leak killed three Americans at the luxurious Sandals Emerald Bay resort in the Bahamas, it generated hundreds of news stories and sparked conversations about this invisible, odorless gas.

After the tragedy, Sandals announced that it would install carbon monoxide detectors in all its hotel rooms in the Caribbean. In doing so, the company unwittingly drew attention to the fact that most resorts and hotels, worldwide, do not place detectors in guest rooms.

The company's action has also fueled a simmering debate over how to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning in hotels across the United States. Although smoke detectors are normally required in US hotel rooms, no states and some hotel brands require in-room carbon monoxide detectors, which can be purchased for as little as $30. Some firefighters, doctors, activists and lawmakers have pushed hotels to install them in every room. The hosting industry says it's unnecessary and too expensive.

Those who want more stringent detector requirements say the frequency of incidents necessitates Changes. In the past year, in addition to Mr. Markowski's near-fatal stay at a Hampton Inn & Suites outside Tulsa, carbon monoxide leaks at six other U.S. hotels have killed two people and injured at least 35. other customers and employees, including 10 children. In most of these cases, there were no working detectors on site, according to interviews with firefighters, reception staff and local news reports.

Over the past 20 years, at least 1,090 people have been injured by carbon monoxide leaks in US hotels, and 32 people – including 7 children – have died, according to the Jenkins Foundation, a non-profit organization that tracks carbon monoxide incidents in hotels. A study published in the journal Preventive Medicine Reports last year suggested that these numbers could be much higher given that so few incidents are publicly reported.

The International Fire Code, which guides state and company policy but does not have the force of law, was updated in 2012 to state that hotels must place carbon monoxide monitors in the common areas or in the rooms. But when the code was updated in 2015, the hosting industry successfully lobbied to remove that requirement, according to the Inter...