[sllug-members]: Electronics recycling

[Eric Swenson]

A lot of smoke detectors use Americium to ionize the air in a chamber 
and allow a current to flow through air.  Smoke particles bind to the 
ions and stop the current.

Much, much safer than the old grandfather clocks painted with gobs of 
radioactive Cesium to make the clock faces glow.. =-)

Eric

Roberto Mello wrote:

>On Tue, Jun 13, 2006 at 06:09:50PM -0600, Kurt Mahan wrote:
>  
>
>>A question about electronics recycling.
>>
>>What is the proper way to dispose of smoke detectors that contain
>>radioactive material?
>>    
>>
>
>Whoa! Radioactive materials?!? I'm curious why smoke detectors have them.
>Do you know?
>
>-Roberto
>
>  
>