Nikki Zellner’s crusade for carbon monoxide detectors began almost a year ago at her children’s Virginia Beach day care center.
The colorless, odorless and dangerous gas had been leaking for an unknown amount of time at Kids Town Learning Center. It was found when a teacher’s husband brought in a detector to check after some people there started feeling nauseated and having headaches.
Zellner picked up her sons, then 3 and 4 years old, and quickly learned that detectors hadn’t been required. They aren’t at most schools and day cares in Virginia.
The Virginia Beach incident set off a year of intense research and advocacy for Zellner, who, despite two jobs and the coronavirus pandemic, has spent much of it trying to raise awareness about the unseen dangers of carbon monoxide exposure.
Her efforts are starting to pay off.
A bill that would require at least one carbon monoxide detector in public schools and licensed child care centers passed the Virginia House recently and is headed to a Senate education and health committee in coming weeks. The legislation is sponsored by local Democratic delegates Alex Askew and Kelly Convirs-Fowler, whose districts cover parts of Virginia Beach and Chesapeake.
Askew said he learned about the lack of a carbon monoxide detector requirement in the Virginian-Pilot article about the Virginia Beach incident last year, and was surprised nothing had been done to correct it. He said his focus in the General Assembly has been on child safety, and particularly Virginia Beach schools, so he teamed with Convirs-Fowler to introduce the legislation.
On Jan. 21, the bill passed the House 98-1. But it still has to clear the often more difficult Senate.
“It just continues to help make our schools and day cares safer and better prepared for this invisible threat,” Askew said. “We just want to make sure our students are protected.”
Last year’s Virginia Beach incident wasn’t the first time carbon monoxide caused a scare in Hampton Roads.
At Deep Creek High School in late 2017, students temporarily sheltered in place after officials found elevated levels of the gas. Leaks were found on a rooftop HVAC unit and fixed before anyone was injured.
The most common symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning are headaches, dizziness, weakness, vomiting, an upset stomach, chest pain and confusion, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The young, the old and those with existing respiratory conditions are particularly vulnerable. People who are sleeping — such as small children in a nap room — can die before experiencing symptoms.
Virginia’s building code actually requires detectors in all new structures, including schools, as of 2015.
The problem is that the process by which Virginia officials update that code does not allow them to mandate the retrofitting of existing buildings, Amanda Love, public relations director for Virginia’s Department of Housing and Community Development, told the Pilot last year. That has to be done legislatively.
Askew’s bill would provide that remedy as a complement to existing code, mandating the detectors in buildings built before 2015 that house public school classrooms or licensed day cares.
He said the average detector can be as cheap as $15 and range to over $100.
Zellner, 41, has been working with the National Carbon Monoxide Awareness Association and created a website, www.saferschoolsinvirginia.com, to educate parents and teachers on the issue. That’s when she’s not working on her own consulting business or in her role heading community relations for a local orthodontics office.
She said requiring one detector is just a start. But she’s been overwhelmed by the legislative support within just a year of the incident that spurred her to action.
She heard about the House passage when pulling into her driveway in the Brigadoon neighborhood. “I ran into the house and basically started crying,” she said.
Zellner said she pulled her children out of Kids Town Learning Center soon after the incident and they now attend Bellamy Manor School. They had been more moody, groggy and restless for about a week after the scare, she said.
Both kids now carry carbon monoxide detectors in their backpacks.
“Just because a major disaster hasn’t happened here doesn’t mean it couldn’t,” Zellner said. “This is something preventable. If I can help one family to not go through this experience, all this will have been worth it.”
Katherine Hafner, 757-222-5208, katherine.hafner@pilotonline.com
