Question: My concern is that there is a warning on the box that my home smoke alarm contains a small quantity of radioactive material (americium-241). With so many homeowners on Oahu having smoke alarms, where do we safely dispose of the old ones without harming our precious environment?
Answer: Smoke detectors are to be placed in your regular household trash, according to the city Department of Environmental Services. That would be in the gray bin, if you are on an automated residential refuse collection route.
This advice aligns with that of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which cites research concluding that at least “10 million unwanted smoke detectors each year can be safely put in the trash.” A smoke detector’s “ability to save lives far outweighs any health risk from the radiation,” according to the NRC’s fact sheet on the subject, which you can read at 808ne.ws/1QLpvPi.
To summarize the agency’s background information: Ionization chamber smoke detectors, the most common type, use radiation to detect smoke. If a detector contains radioactive material, it is required by law to carry a warning label, as yours does. Most units contain one microcurie or less of americium-241, an artificially produced radioisotope that is a decay product of plutonium-241, made in nuclear reactors.
NRC research found that people with two such smoke detectors in their homes were exposed to less radiation than they received as “background radiation” from naturally occurring sources, such as the sun, soil, rocks and air. The NRC also looked at radiation doses from misuse and found that even people who dismantled the smoke detector faced low exposure — although it strongly discourages such intentional destruction.
Also, according to the fact sheet, “A 1979 analysis looked at the annual dose from normal use and disposal of Am-241 smoke detectors. The study used data where possible and conservative assumptions overstate the risk. It found that 10 million unwanted smoke detectors each year can be safely put in the trash.”
The World Nuclear Association, which promotes nuclear energy, offers a similar assessment, stating on its website, “The radiation dose to the occupants of a house from a domestic smoke detector is essentially zero, and in any case very much less than that from natural background radiation. The alpha particles are absorbed within the detector, while most of the gamma rays escape harmlessly. The small amount of radioactive material that is used in these detectors is not a health hazard and individual units can be disposed of in normal household waste.”
Elsewhere on its website, the NRC lists other radioactive material that may be disposed of in landfills, including short-lived nuclear medicine radioisotopes from hospitals, medical clinics or patients’ homes; fertilizer; sheet rock; water purification byproducts; oil and gas production sludge; timepieces; pottery; gas lantern mantles; and optical lenses.
FREE OMIYAGE
It’s common for youth sports teams, church choirs and school clubs and organizations that travel to tournaments, performances and events outside Hawaii to bring a little aloha to share along the way, in the form of goody bags and other small gifts. Such groups also like to share something with out-of-state organizations that come to perform and compete here. The cost of these omiyage adds up quickly. But qualified nonprofit groups can get free Hawaii-themed promotional gifts from the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau to hand out when they are traveling or hosting visitors in the islands. The Sharing Aloha program provides such goodies as logo pens and pencils, notepads, magnets and stickers. Register online at sharingaloha.com and allow 10 business days to process a request for items. In 2015 more than 100 groups relied on the program as they represented Hawaii in events such as the Little League Baseball Regional Tournament in San Bernardino, Calif.; the Future Farmers of America Conference in Louisville, Ky.; and the Youth Leadership Summit for Sustainable Development in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., according to a spokeswoman for the HVCB.
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