Radioactive Smoke Alarms? (was Re: Avoiding radioactive household products)

Article View: pdx.consumer

Article #15

#15

From: Loren I. Petrich
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 21:20

13 lines
1087 bytes

	Many smoke alarms have a small bit of radioactive material in
them to create ionization. When there is smoke, then the conductivity
of the air goes up. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's how I think a
smoke alarm works.

	Though radioactive materials arouse an almost phobic reaction
nowadays (about a century ago, they aroused just about the opposite
one, I may add), they _are_ guaranteed reliable. As long as it's not
all gone, radioactive material will continue being radioactive no
matter what goes on its environment.

/Loren

Technical Details

Message-ID: <1992Aug26.212011.23983@s1.gov>

Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!sun-barr!ames!lll-winken!s1.gov!lip

References: <1992Aug25.235542.17607@sopwith.uucp> <1992Aug26.025131.479@athena.cs.uga.edu> <rrempel.714854221@sfu.ca>

Show Full Headers

Complete Article Headers

Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!sun-barr!ames!lll-winken!s1.gov!lip
From: lip@s1.gov (Loren I. Petrich)
Newsgroups: pdx.consumer,misc.consumers,sci.environment,sci.med
Subject: Radioactive Smoke Alarms? (was Re: Avoiding radioactive household products)
Message-ID: <1992Aug26.212011.23983@s1.gov>
Date: 26 Aug 92 21:20:11 GMT
References: <1992Aug25.235542.17607@sopwith.uucp> <1992Aug26.025131.479@athena.cs.uga.edu> <rrempel.714854221@sfu.ca>
Sender: usenet@s1.gov
Distribution: na
Organization: LLNL
Lines: 13
Nntp-Posting-Host: s1.gov

Reply to Parent Message