Carbon Monoxide Concentrations and Carboxyhemoglobin Profiles from Commercially Available Portable Generators Equipped with a CO Hazard Mitigation System

Published

January 31, 2022

Author(s)

Stephen Zimmerman, Steven Emmerich, Matthew Brookman

Abstract

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is focused on addressing the hazard of acute carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning of consumers from portable generators that can result in serious, long term health effects or death in exposed individuals. Under an interagency agreement with CPSC (CPSC-I-17-0023), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) conducted a series of tests on four commercially available portable generators advertised as certified to one of two voluntary standards requiring CO hazard mitigation systems for portable generators. These tests characterized the indoor CO concentrations and the associated calculated carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) profiles on simulated occupants when the generators were operated in or near a test house under various operational and environmental conditions. This report presents the measured CO data and calculated COHb levels from those tests. In addition, model validation tests and simulations were performed for 2 Cases (3 tests each) to supplement those already reported in NIST Technical Note 2049.

Citation

Technical Note (NIST TN) - 2200

Report Number

2200

NIST Pub Series

Technical Note (NIST TN)

Pub Type

NIST Pubs

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.2200

Local Download

Keywords

Generator, carbon monoxide, carboxyhemoglobin, CONTAM, exposure, indoor air quality, health, measurements, multizone airflow model, simulation

Citation

Zimmerman, S. , Emmerich, S. and Brookman, M. (2022), Carbon Monoxide Concentrations and Carboxyhemoglobin Profiles from Commercially Available Portable Generators Equipped with a CO Hazard Mitigation System, Technical Note (NIST TN), National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, [online], https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.TN.2200, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=933818 (Accessed October 10, 2025)