Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy

Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy SMOKE ALARM SUMMIT National Smoke Alarm and CO Alarm Survey Arthur Lee U. S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Bethesda, MD The views expressed in this presentation are those of the CPSC staff and have not been reviewed or approved by, and may not necessarily reflect the views of, the Commission.

Overall Project Details • Project launched in FY 2016 • Funding sponsors CPSC, USFA, NFPA, NEMA, NAHB and NIST • Contractor Eureka. Facts (Rockville, MD) • Main survey early 2019 • Initial findings expected late 2019 • Report in 2020 Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy SMOKE ALARM SUMMIT 2

Project Objective National Survey to get snapshot of consumer use, functionality, and perception of smoke and CO alarms • Provide accurate information to industry and building code developers about current state of alarm coverage to determine changes needed. • Provide life safety educators/advocates with information for messaging/prevention programs. Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy SMOKE ALARM SUMMIT 3

Background • No current national information on CO alarm use in United States homes. • 1992 only prior national in-home survey conducted by CPSC (Smoke Detector Operability Survey Report on Findings (revised) October 1994). Only smoke alarm use and functionality surveyed. • The top action item identified at the 2015 Smoke Alarm Summit was “Conduct a national census (or representative sample in-home survey) on the prevalence and characteristics of smoke alarms. ” Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy SMOKE ALARM SUMMIT 4

Why In-Home Surveys? • Recent studies of smoke or CO alarm presence generally relied on self-reports (via telephone or Internet) or were part of programs targeting high-risk populations. • Phone surveys have higher degree of error because respondents may provide interviewer with most socially appropriate response or guess at an answer. • One of the main aspects identified in 2015 Smoke Alarm Summit for the survey was “Survey must get into people’s homes” because home visits by trained data collectors with inspection and testing provide much better quality data. Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy SMOKE ALARM SUMMIT 5

New Information to Be Collected for Smoke and CO Alarms • Location of each alarm • Rooms in homes being used as sleeping areas that do not have alarms • Occupancy information and its relationship to presence and operational aspects of smoke and CO alarms • • Type of alarms Age of alarms Functionality of the alarms Cause for failed alarms Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy SMOKE ALARM SUMMIT . 6

Locations for Survey Sampling • 23 States and 46 Cities • 1, 185 homes to be surveyed • Approximately 84% of housing units within metropolitan areas and 16% outside Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy SMOKE ALARM SUMMIT 7

Planned Locations in States Affected by Disasters • Hurricanes damaged planned sampling areas in North Carolina and Texas. • Increased sampling for North Carolina and Texas. • Sampling locations in Georgia and Florida not affected by hurricanes. • Sampling locations in Southern California not affected by the recent wildfires. Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy SMOKE ALARM SUMMIT 8

Survey Data Being Obtained About Occupants in Home • • • How many people live or stay in your household? Ages of each individual? Level of education? Ethnicity, including Hispanic or Latino origin or descent? Deaf or hard of hearing? Physical, mental, or other health condition? Smoke cigarettes, cigars, or pipes? Annual income? Homes with any smoke or CO Alarms – How necessary do you feel it is to have an alarm installed in your home? – Reasons you don’t have an alarm installed in your home? Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy SMOKE ALARM SUMMIT 9

In-Home Survey • Fire History – Accidental fires in past 12 months? – How were you alerted to incident? – Did any smoke alarms sound? – Have alarms gone off when there was no fire? – Reason for nuisance alarms • CO History – CO alarm sounding in past 12 months? – How did you react to the CO alarm sounding? Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy SMOKE ALARM SUMMIT 10

Experiences with Smoke and CO alarms • Frequency of testing and reasons for not testing? • Knowledge of working and not working alarms in the home? • Reason for disconnected or unpowered alarms? • Knowledge about installing, maintaining, and replacing alarms? • Knowledge of effects of levels of carbon monoxide (CO)? • Familiarity with alarms and reasons to own a smoke or CO alarm? Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy SMOKE ALARM SUMMIT 11

Documenting the Alarms • Smoke and CO alarms in the type of room and floor • Photograph each alarm • Identify alarm characteristics o Sensor type o Age of the alarm (manufacture date) o Power source o Interconnected o Connected to central panel or security system o Strobe and/or tactile o Status of battery (dead, missing, none) Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy SMOKE ALARM SUMMIT 12

Functionality of the Smoke and CO Alarm • Testing the Smoke Alarms – Test button for smoke alarms. – Replace or restore power to the alarm and repeat test. – Test with “smoke” aerosol – Collect failed alarms. – Replace and/or install new smoke alarms. • Testing the CO Alarms – Test button for CO alarms. – Replace or restore power to the alarm and repeat test. – Collect failed alarms. – Replace and/or install new CO alarms. Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy SMOKE ALARM SUMMIT 13

Next Steps for the Survey • Continue conducting surveys through Fall 2019 • Issue preliminary report late 2019 • Issue Final and Completed report in early 2020 • Establish relationships between survey data and local codes Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy SMOKE ALARM SUMMIT 14

Proposed Project to Analyze Survey Data and Local Codes • Project Objective – Analyze the supplied data on smoke and CO alarm installation codes in each occupancy that was sampled in the survey (24 metropolitan areas and 24 geographically distant non-metro areas) and the surveyed data to determine if local regulations impact the surveyed results. Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy SMOKE ALARM SUMMIT

New Information to Be Gathered from the Smoke and CO Alarms Survey • The areas that may potentially have been impacted for smoke alarms and/or CO alarms include, but are not limited to the following: – Technology of devices required (e. g. photoelectric, ionization, etc. ) – Power source requirements (e. g. , hardwired 120 VAC, replaceable battery and 10 -year battery) – Quantity and placement of devices required – Law applicable to existing homes or new construction Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy SMOKE ALARM SUMMIT

Challenges • Gather the changes in the local codes for the surveyed areas from 1995 to present – Adoption of code edition – Amendments to the codes • • • Placement Power requirements Interconnected requirements Existing and new construction Sensor technology specific Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy SMOKE ALARM SUMMIT

What Next to Increase the Number of Working Smoke Alarms in the U. S. ? 1. Conduct a national census (or representative sample in-home survey) on the prevalence and characteristics of smoke alarms. • Form a task group to study the results from the survey – The impact on the survey data that may have been caused by different installation codes. – Examine various factors that may affect the number of working smoke alarms in a home. – Examine the cause of nonoperational smoke alarms collected from the survey. – The survey results for disconnected smoke alarms in homes. Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy SMOKE ALARM SUMMIT

What next to increase the number of working smoke alarms in the U. S. 2. Promote fire department home safety visits that use best practices in installation and education. • Dig deeper into the areas that have more working smoke alarms to determine additional factors that may be affecting these areas; – Installation programs – Fire prevention programs – Education programs Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy SMOKE ALARM SUMMIT

Thank You! ARTHUR LEE U. S. CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION, BETHESDA, MD 20