Quebec's Education Minister has sent notice to all school directors in the province asking them to confirm by next Tuesday that all of their buildings have carbon monoxide detectors.
Jean-François Roberge is also calling for inspections and air quality checks to be done in all schools with oil, natural gas, or wood heating systems. The Minister wants the results as soon as possible.
The new measures come after the Ecole des Decouvreurs elementary school in LaSalle was flooded with carbon monoxide fumes due to a problem with its heating system. Acceptable levels of carbon monoxide vary between 10 and 35 parts per million. The school's hallways had CO levels at about 175 ppm while the furnace room tested at 900ppm.
On Friday morning Roberge said that one of the students overcome by the gas leak continues to show symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning.
The Minister added new regulations will be adopted making it mandatory for all schools to be equipped with harmful gas detectors and that they be inspected annually to ensure all sensors are functioning properly.