Incidents, Deaths and In-Depth Investigations Associated with Non-Fire Carbon Monoxide from Engine-Driven Generators and Other Engine-Driven Tools, 19

This report summarizes non-fire carbon monoxide (CO) incidents associated with engine-driven generators and other engine-driven tools that occurred between 1999 and 2011, and were reported to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) staff as of April 20, 2012. It should be noted that due to incident reporting delays, statistics for the most recent years should be considered incomplete. In this report, the two most recent years, 2010 and 2011, are identified as being incomplete since these figures are most likely to change in future reports. Throughout this report, the number of deaths represents a count of the fatalities reported to CPSC staff associated with generators and other engine-driven tools, such as power lawn mowers, garden tractors, portable pumps, power sprayers and washers, snow blowers, and concrete saws. Also included in this report are summaries of fatal, non-fire CO incidents, where an engine-driven tool (EDT) and one or more other fuel-burning consumer products also may have been involved and the EDT was believed to be, at least, a contributing factor to the fatal levels of CO. These fatalities are characterized in the "Multiple Product" category. This report also provides a more detailed summary of fatal, non-fire CO poisoning incidents associated with engine-driven tools, with particular emphasis on cases involving generator use, based on information found in the CPSC's In-depth Investigation (INDP) File.