North Carolina’s public schools could be required to install carbon monoxide, radon detectors | NC Newsline

A provision tucked in the state budget requiring the NC Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) to study the status and cost of carbon monoxide and radon testing units in public schools caught education officials by surprise. The law requires a report to the Joint Legislative Education Oversight Committee detailing the number of school buildings without such equipment and the cost to outfit them by Friday, December 15, but State Board of Education officials say March is the earliest the report can be completed.

“[The report] is an item that cropped up in the state budget that I don’t think the department [NCDPI] was in any way aware was coming,” State Board of Education vice Chairman Alan Duncan said during a recent board meeting. “There were a few of those items and this is another one of those.”    

Without a finished product in hand, education officials are sending a “shell report” to meet the deadline requirement.

“We anticipate a full report being available in time for your March meeting,” Nathan Maune, a section chief with the state’s School Planning Section told the state board. “We’re surveying what is identified in the law as identified public schools.”

The report is being driven by a provision in the North Carolina State Building Code, Fire Prevention Code, that requires new buildings to have carbon monoxide alarm and detection systems. Lawmakers could require existing facilities to install them as well, and want to know how much it would cost to do so.

“I think that’s sort of the hypothetical behind the survey,” Maune said.

Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless gas, which can cause serious illness and death. Radon is also a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas and is the leading cause of lung cancer among non-smokers. According to information on the NC Department of Health and Human Services website, 21,000 people — including 450 North Carolinians — die each year due to radon-induced lung cancer.

The state budget law requires the report to include the number of school buildings statewide that lack carbon monoxide and radon gas detectors. The report must also include an estimate of how much it would cost to install alarm and testing systems in schools where they are absent and to inspect those schools.

NCDPI must survey 2,540 campuses, including state agency schools, laboratory schools, regional schools and statewide schools such as the NC School of Science and Mathematics and UNC School of the Arts. Because most campuses have multiple buildings, officials estimate the report will contain data on more than 15,000 buildings, assuming each campus has an average of six buildings.

Maune said the department is “well on our way to collecting that information” after only learning about the report requirement in October.

Duncan said if the report can be completed by March, it can provide lawmakers with the budgetary information they’ll need for the next legislative session.

“That [March] is about as fast as it can be done and that’s with the department working very hard,” Duncan said.