4 ms·
Radioactive smoke detectors mandatory in houses. Hmm, what's wrong with this picture?
by cbaleanu 13y ago
Radioactive smoke detectors mandatory in houses. Hmm, what's wrong with this picture?
- mindslight 13y agoThe irrational fear that's thrown around whenever the word 'radiation' is used?
- nraynaud 13y agoare you talking about the classification of smoke detectors as weapon material?
- jordanthoms 13y agoSo much this. It's as bad as when someone is trying to demonize some chemical in food, and lists all the other things it's used in, as if that has any relevance to it's safety...
- _delirium 13y agoIt's a pretty small amount of radioactive material, about 1 μCi (roughly equal to 2000 bananas). And in normal usage, you probably shouldn't be removing the insides of the smoke detector and eating it or anything, unlike the tasty bananas. Nonetheless, they're being phased out in a lot of places, mostly due to disposal worries. While one smoke detector is fairly harmless, tens of thousands being dumped in landfills is more of a concern, and properly recycling them is expensive. Optical smoke detectors based on LEDs are now fairly affordable, don't have the disposal issues, and may also perform better.
- capnrefsmmat 13y agoAnd the alpha radiation emitted is barely able to penetrate a sheet of paper, let alone the detector housing and ten feet of air to your body.
- jamesaguilar 13y agoBut then it gets into the water supply and is bombaring your cells from nanometers away . . .
- lgeek 13y agoExcept that americium dioxide is insoluble[0], so it wouldn't dissolve in the water supply. Even if consumed, it would pass straight through your digestive system and wouldn't accumulate in the body. [0] http://media.cns-snc.ca/pdf_doc/ecc/smoke_am241.pdf http://media.cns-snc.ca/pdf_doc/ecc/smoke_am241.pdf
- Tuna-Fish 13y agoNothing, because the smoke detector uses an alpha emitter, and alpha radiation is blocked by practically everything, including a sheet of paper, or roughly 4 cm or air.