In the days after one person died and dozens fell ill from a gas leak at Roanoke College, it appeared that the incident would become an impetus for a law requiring carbon monoxide detectors in certain buildings statewide.

A more detailed study of the issue, however, has found some problems with the proposed legislation.

After studying a bill sent to it by the General Assembly, a work group of the Virginia Housing Commission decided Wednesday not to support the requirement, citing concerns that included the unproven track record of carbon monoxide detectors.

A study by the Gas Technology Institute has found that six of 10 commercially available brands failed to detect potentially dangerous levels of carbon monoxide in some cases and issued false alarms in others. And more than 1.3 million of the devices have been recalled following investigations by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

"If you require something, it builds an expectation that the device will provide some level of dependability," said Emory Rodgers, deputy director of the state Department of Housing and Community Development and a member of the work group. "And if it doesn't, people may point to building and fire officials and ask, 'Why didn't it work?' "

Wednesday's consensus by the group is not the final say; the bill now goes to the full Housing Commission for a vote and then back to the General Assembly. But the commission usually follows the recommendations of its work groups.

Likewise, when the legislature asks for a study before acting on a bill, it is often guided by the results. "A lot of times we turn these things over to people with more expertise," said House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, R-Salem.

But some lawmakers, Griffith among them, may still see a need for mandating carbon monoxide detectors, at least in high-occupancy buildings.

"When you have two incidents in your own back yard, you have to say, 'OK, wait a minute,' " Griffith said, referring to two carbon monoxide leaks this year at Roanoke College.

In July, a retired minister was killed and more than 100 summer program participants were sickened by carbon monoxide that leaked from a faulty water heater in the Sections dormitory. No one was injured in a second carbon monoxide leak at a campus fraternity house two months later.

By the time of the first leak, a bill that would have required carbon monoxide detectors in rental units with gas-powered appliances had already been passed over by the General Assembly and sent to the Housing Commission for study.

The bill's sponsor, Sen. Frank Ruff, R-Mecklenburg County, said he needs to study the issue before deciding what to do next.

At least 10 states have passed laws in recent years that require carbon monoxide detectors in certain buildings. But the International Code Council, which develops model building codes adopted by most cities, counties and states, has yet to see a need for mandating the detectors -- a factor that Rodgers said also influenced the work group's decision.

Reliability of the alarms was a "major issue" in past years, council spokesman Steve Daggers said. But more recently, the council has not found a sufficient need for requiring the alarms, he said. That view is also shared by the Apartment and Office Building Association, said Mark Ingrao, vice president of government affairs for the group.

Not all homes have gas-powered furnaces or other appliances that could possibly leak carbon monoxide, an odorless and invisible gas that has been linked to about 500 fatal poisonings a year in the United States. Of those that do, an estimated 30 percent have carbon monoxide detectors.

Manufacturers say recent technological advances have improved the carbon monoxide detectors, and that problems identified in studies involved mostly older models.