The Consumer Product Safety Commission warned consumers Thursday to stop using 4 in 1 plug-in natural gas and carbon monoxide detectors, Model KH158, immediately because they can fail to alert people to deadly carbon monoxide. The covered count: 376,974 units. [1]

Read the fine print, because the fine print is the story. This is a warning, not a recall. The manufacturer, Shenzhen Kanghua Shengshi Industrial Co., doing business as KH Alert of China, has not agreed to recall the detectors, so the agency cannot order one. Its advice is blunter than most recalls: stop using the devices, dispose of them, and install new working carbon monoxide detectors on every level of the home and outside sleeping areas. [1]

The failure count attached to Thursday's notice runs to 91 reported incidents in which the detectors did not alarm. [2] Carbon monoxide gives no smell, no color, and no second chance; the whole proposition of a detector is that it fails loudly instead of silently. A silent detector is worse than none, because it teaches a family to trust a wall.

Imported devices that will not alarm, sold by manufacturers who will not recall, are becoming a genre. The commission can warn, and it asks consumers to report incidents through SaferProducts.gov. Only your own outlet check stands between you and the genre. Unplug it today.

-- NORA WHITFIELD, Chicago