The minimum code was written in 1992 based on healthy, able-bodied adults. So by the time the standard alarm finally goes off, an older adult can already be unconscious — or worse. TrueDetect alarms while your parents can still get up and get out.
On a mission to raise awareness about CO detectors' failure, and to protect the ones most at risk. Backed by a team of safety experts, doctors, and engineers.
The Problem No One Tells Families
Here's what the research says, and why it matters for anyone with an aging parent:
As we age, the heart, lungs, and bloodstream lose the reserve they once had to withstand a sudden loss of oxygen — which is exactly what carbon monoxide causes. The same leak a younger adult might walk away from can put an older adult on the floor, or stop their heart. And if your parent already lives with a heart or lung condition, that margin is smaller still.
CDC Carbon Monoxide Mortality Data; Frontiers in Public Health, 2026
The 70 PPM alarm threshold wasn't written by doctors or geriatric specialists. It was set after a wave of CO call-outs in the early 1990s, built around a strong, able-bodied adult — and it has not moved since.
NCOAA Petition to CPSC, December 17, 2024
At 50, 60, even 69 PPM — still legal, still completely silent — an older adult can already be unconscious, in cardiac arrest, or gone. A standard detector is not required to make a single sound until 70 PPM, long after the danger has started.
CDC / NIOSH exposure data
A younger adult feels a leak coming — dizzy, confused, enough to make a run for the door. An older adult, especially asleep or alone in the house, is the least able to react, wake, and move in time. So even when the alarm finally sounds at 70 PPM, for them it is often already too late.
Journal of Emergency Medicine; CDC Clinical Guidance for CO Exposure
You can't prevent a CO leak.
But you can make sure your parents get out.
TrueDetect is the only CO detector that doesn't wait for carbon monoxide to become life-threatening. It catches it when it's still a whisper — and makes sure your phone screams while your parents can still be woken and helped out of the house.
Most people assume CO poisoning requires an obviously broken or old appliance. It doesn't.
New, well-maintained appliances can develop hairline cracks that even inspections can't catch. And appliances can develop faults the day after a service.
CO leaks are unexpected. A furnace can run perfectly for 6 years and suddenly develop a crack overnight. A flue can shift in a cold snap. A burner can come out of a service slightly out of tune and nobody notices.
The families whose parents end up in the emergency room weren't negligent. They serviced the furnace, they bought reliable appliances.
They just didn't have a detector that could tell them what was happening in their parents' home before it was too late.
A leak can start in any appliance, at any age — that's the point.
But age still stacks the odds, and older parents tend to live with the oldest appliances of all.
The furnace or water heater in their basement may be 15, 20, even 30 years old — long past the age when hairline cracks and failing flues become common.
Which means the homes most likely to spring a leak are very often the exact homes our parents live in — and the ones least able to survive it are the people living there.
Doctors, lawyers, federal lawmakers, environmental advocacy organizations, and survivor associations have all formally demanded that the US government update the CO alarm standard. The standard still hasn't moved.
December 2024
The National Carbon Monoxide Awareness Association, represented by Earthjustice, formally petitioned the US Consumer Product Safety Commission to lower alarm thresholds and mandate accurate digital displays.
Filed December 17, 2024. Still pending.
Trouble viewing it here? Open or download the full petition (PDF)
Introduced 2021, US Senate Bill S.351
Named after two brothers killed by CO poisoning in their sleep. It referenced research showing that proper detector placement and alarm threshold near sleeping areas could prevent the majority of CO fatalities. It passed the Senate. It stalled in the House. Families are still waiting.
Trouble viewing it here? Open or download Senate Bill S.351 (PDF)
January 13, 2025
An official meeting log from the US Consumer Product Safety Commission discussing proposed changes to UL 2034 - including lowering display thresholds below 30 PPM. The meeting confirms that regulators are actively aware the current standard is inadequate, and that the industry resistance remains the primary obstacle to change.
Trouble viewing it here? Open or download the CPSC meeting log (PDF)
Based on peer-reviewed exposure data from the CDC, NIOSH, and the World Health Organization.
Carbon monoxide is already entering your parent's blood, quietly displacing the oxygen their heart and brain depend on. A younger body shrugs it off. An older one has far less reserve to spare.
An aging heart and lungs begin to feel the strain. For a parent with any heart or lung condition, this is where carbon monoxide can already start causing some trouble, but still nothing concerning.
This is the range where an older adult, especially one who is asleep, can begin to lose consciousness, and where a strained heart can slip into a dangerous rhythm.
An older adult can now collapse, go into cardiac arrest, or simply stop breathing — and can no longer get themselves out.
Your parents' old detector finally alarms. For an older body, it has often already come too late.
If you have TrueDetect, you'll see CO building on the screen and get notifications to your phone at just 1-29 PPM - long before it becomes life-threatening. And at 30 PPM, the alarm goes off. Hours earlier. Before an older body starts to give out. While getting your parents up and out is still easy.
Every other detector was built to satisfy a legal standard written for a healthy adult body. TrueDetect was designed with a few specific features that, combined, give the people most at risk the highest possible safety.
Every standard detector is legally built to stay silent until CO reaches 70 PPM — a level where an older adult may already have collapsed. TrueDetect alarms at 30, before an aging body starts to go, and while your parents can still safely evacuate the home. That's the difference between waking your parents… and finding out you can't.
Standard detectors show nothing. Even the ones with a display can't read levels below 30 PPM. TrueDetect shows exact CO levels from 1 PPM — so you can see a problem starting in your parents' home the moment it begins, not after it's already dangerous.
The moment CO starts climbing, TrueDetect sends a notification telling you what the level means and what to do. And in an emergency, at 30 PPM, it triggers a loud alarm on every phone in the family. Even on silent / sleep mode. Even if your parents are home alone — and even if you live an hour away, or three states away.
Standard detectors quietly expire after 5 years — which is why 30% of households unknowingly own a detector that already expired, and the longer someone has lived in a home, the more likely that is. TrueDetect lasts 10 years and sends a notification when it expires. So your parents are never unknowingly unprotected.
Simple To Set Up
Plug TrueDetect into any outlet
Connect TrueDetect To Your Phone by downloading the TrueSafety App and hitting the "Pair" button.
Your parents are now protected — for a full decade.
You don't have to connect TrueDetect to a phone to be protected — it has an alarm of its own. The app is a bonus.
You don't need to set the detectors up again for everyone's phones. Just log in to your account from their phone — so you, your parents, and your siblings can all get the alert.
Board of Quality Assurance
Meet the experts who validate our technology and ensure it's backed by rigorous, independent evidence.
Dr. Blane Schilling, MD
Medical Innovation Specialist & Retired ER Physician
Dr. Sandra Okafor, MD PhD
Board-Certified Toxicologist
James Whitfield
Director of Consumer Product Safety Compliance
Prof. Daniel Sura, PhD
Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Dr. Rachel Ng
Environmental Health & Safety Engineer
Carrie Mostow
CO Poisoning Survivor & Founder, National CO Safety Alliance
Choose Your Protection
Electrochemical CO protection that alerts you before it's too late
Less than $0.02/day for 10 years of protection!
Plug TrueDetect into any standard wall outlet. That's it — they're protected. Everything below is optional:
I plugged one in at my mother's place mostly for peace of mind — she's 78 and lives alone. Three weeks later the app flagged 38 PPM overnight while I was four hours away. The water heater had a failing flue. Her old detector never made a sound, and it turns out it never would have. I don't want to think about how that night could have gone.
Karen D., Minneapolis MN Verified Purchase
Furnace cracked overnight at my father's house last January. TrueDetect hit 34 PPM and the alarm woke him — and my phone went off at the same time, which is what got me to call. He was out the door in minutes. The fire department measured 60 PPM in his bedroom by the time they arrived. The detector in his hallway never made a sound. It wasn't broken. It just wasn't allowed to go off yet.
Kevin M., Buffalo NY Verified Purchase
A man two doors down from my father died of a CO leak last winter — 81, lived alone, never woke up. That could have been my dad. I bought these for his place that week. Now I actually sleep, knowing my phone will scream if anything ever happens in his home.
Robert M., Columbus OH Verified Purchase
I live in Texas, my parents are in Ohio. My phone buzzed one night: CO rising in their basement. I called them, they opened windows and stepped outside, and the gas company came out. The level never even hit alarm range — but WE KNEW. That's the whole point. Their old detector would have let them sleep right through it.
Melissa R., Austin TX Verified Purchase
My parents are in their 70s and I can't be there every night to check on them. Their furnace leaked last October, and by the time my dad realized something was wrong, my mother couldn't stand up. She's okay now, thank God, but I'll never forget that call. The ER doctor told me to get TrueDetect. I don't think I could sleep without it now.
Rachel T., Denver CO Verified Purchase
A car was left running in my parents' attached garage. By the time TrueDetect alarmed I already had a headache and my hands were shaking — and I'm 45. I got my mom out first, then went back for my dad. At 30 PPM I could still do it. I don't believe I could have at 70, and neither of them could have gotten out alone.
Nicole B., Kansas City MO Verified Purchase
My dad is 82 and stubborn — the detector in his hall was older than my kids and he saw no reason to change it. I plugged a TrueDetect in myself and set the app up on my phone so I'd see everything. Best thing I've done for him in years. If your parent won't do it themselves, do it for them.
Mark D., Phoenix AZ Verified Purchase
Plugged one into my mom's bedroom and one by the furnace. Both read 0. Some people would call that a waste of money. I call it the first time in years I've actually known what my mother is breathing all night instead of just hoping. I check it from my phone every night before bed.
James P., Boise ID Verified Purchase
Our Mission
We don't spread this message alone. Changing how America thinks about CO safety requires doctors, first responders, and safety leaders who share the cause. That's why we show up at safety conferences, community events, and industry summits — meeting the people who can help us get real protection into every American home.
If it was bought at a hardware store or big-box retailer, it almost certainly alarms at 70 PPM — a level where an older adult can already have collapsed. It isn't defective; it's doing exactly what the 1992 minimum code requires. That's the problem.
As we age, the heart, lungs, and bloodstream lose the reserve they once had to survive a sudden loss of oxygen. So the same leak a younger person might walk off can cause an older adult to collapse or go into cardiac arrest — at levels well below the 70 PPM alarm. Adults over 65 die from CO at a higher rate than any other age group, and if a parent already has a heart or lung condition, the risk is higher still.
One outside (or inside) their bedroom first — that's where they spend the most hours, and where a leak is most dangerous while they sleep. Then one near the furnace or water heater, and one on each level of the home. The more of the home you cover, the better.
Yes. TrueDetect's built-in alarm is loud enough to wake a sleeping household, and it simultaneously triggers a loud alarm on every connected phone — including yours — even on silent mode, so you'll know even if you don't live with them.
It takes about a minute. Download the free TrueSafety app on iPhone or Android, log in, and pair.
To add family — your parents, your siblings — they just download the app and log in with the same email, and everyone shares the alerts.
No. In an emergency, both the TrueDetect device and every connected phone sound the alarm.
Yes — to several levels. The lowest setting won't disturb sleep, which is ideal for a bedroom.
TrueDetect comes with a 10-year warranty covering manufacturing defects — that's how confident we are it will last.
Orders typically ship within 1-2 business days and arrive within 5-8 business days, from a US warehouse.
TrueDetect
Standard Detectors