The CPSC record behind generator CO

Last reviewed July 2026. Every number below is CPSC's, linked.

The numbers

• Roughly 80 deaths per year in the US from CO poisoning caused by portable generators, on CPSC's estimates.
• An estimated 790 non-fire CO deaths since 2008 associated with portable generators — 43% of all CO deaths related to consumer products under CPSC's jurisdiction.
• In CPSC's effectiveness modeling, UL 2201-compliant generators would avert nearly 100% of the deaths occurring with non-compliant machines; PGMA G300-compliant machines about 87%.
• And the finding that frames this site: compliance with UL 2201 "appears to be minimal," and G300 compliance "is still lacking for most models or units currently being sold" (CPSC, 2022).

Why the deaths concentrate after storms

Generator CO deaths spike in exactly the weeks generators sell fastest — hurricane and ice-storm aftermaths, when power is out, machines are new to their owners, and the pressure to run them close to the house (or inside a garage "just for tonight") is highest. CPSC issues the same warnings before every named storm (example, Tropical Storm Ian): outdoors only, at least 20 feet from the home, exhaust pointed away, never in garages, basements or near openings. That guidance — not any sensor — is the operative safety document, at every price point and every tier of our table.

Why "the shelf" hasn't caught up

The shutoff technology is proven, the standards have existed since 2018, and CPSC's modeling says the stricter one would nearly zero out the death toll. What's missing is adoption — the voluntary standards bind only the makers who opt in, which is why CPSC moved toward a mandatory federal standard and why the checkable question at purchase time is the one our table answers: which standard, and who stands behind it.

Every generator line's claim, sourced →

We test nothing and give no safety advice — we index CPSC's published record with attribution. Estimates and modeling figures are CPSC's own; the linked documents govern.