Long time lurker, first time poster - I thought some of you, like me, might have these devices but not gotten the word. Brookdale International Systems, Inc., the maker / distributor of various smoke hoods, has issued a safety notice about these items stating in part that the hoods should not be used. Read it online here:
http://www.evacsafety.com/en/suspend_use.pdf
They say that within 30 days of March 10, 2006, the company will issue further info about the situation.

Thanks very much for the heads up! My EVACU8 units are nearing their expiration and I was thinking that I needed to replace them sometime this year. I'll be checking the website for more updates before I do. Interesting that this safety notice doesn't appear in the News section of their website, but only in a separate link.

Makes you wonder about the safety of other brands of smoke hoods. Seems like Brookdale has the money and the know-how to make a top-quality product, so if their product turns out to have a significant safety problem, it makes you wonder about all smoke hoods. <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Something I wondered about the notice is this: Let's say you are in a situation where there is a lot of smoke and it will take you about 10 minutes to escape (down the stairwell of a tall building, for example). Is wearing the hood actually WORSE than just breathing the smoke-filled air? I don't understand what's going on here, I guess. Time will (hopefully) tell.

That's an interesting point. When I first read your question, I was thinking that Brookdale was implying that these recent test results indicated that carbon monoxide wasn't being converted to carbon dioxide as effectively as they expected, in which case, using one in a fire would still be better than not wearing one. However, I just reread the notice and they tell you to NOT use the smokehood, which might imply that it could be worse than not wearing one. I'm not sure. Maybe they're just being overly cautious and tell you not to use the smokehood at all as a legal CYA thing.

However, unless the catalytic part is actually creating dangerous gases that aren't already in smoke, their smokehoods still have other filtering elements that protect you from particulates and other acrid gases in smoke that can also incapacitate you. Plus, you'd still have the fire-resistant hood and the positive air pressure system to keep smoke out of your eyes. Personally, if I were in a fire today with smoke, I'd still put on my EVACU8 to escape. I just wouldn't buy a replacement unit until they figure out what's going on.

Considering all the testing that Brookdale must've done in the many years since the EVACU8 products first came out, I can't imagine these smokehoods being useless. I mean, they're not some fly-by-night outfit. Maybe the products don't age well. Maybe they discovered a bad manufacturing batch or the raw materials for the batch were substandard. Anyways, we'll see.

I'm wondering if any EVAC U8 owners think it is worse to use their hood than breath fire. Certainly I haven't stopped carrying mine.

Of course, it will be interesting to see how it turns out.

-john