Re[6]: smoke detector overkill

[bkolb@arinc.com]

>> 
>> >There are two catalog sales companies called Seventh Generation and Real
>> >Goods that sell EcoFeelGood products.  Their catalogs have always
>> >contained lines of compact flourescent light bulbs that contained no
>> >radioactive starter*, but i really got incensed when they started carrying
>> >a line of contain non-radiation smoke detectors which work off turbidity.
>> 
>> OK where Do I find a radioactive starter?  None that I've ever checked
>> showed anything more than you'd expect from potassium in the glass
>> (including some European manufacturers).  Kathren mentions these in his
>> book but doesn't indicate if such use is dated.
>> 
>> bkolb@arinc.com

>You need to break the bulb to sense the radiation.  It's not penetrating.

Thanks for the help.  I checked our neighborhood lighting store and found
two GE Compax bulb-type fluorescent tubes with a screw-in base, one with
0.33uCi Pm-147 and the other with 50nCi of Pm-147.  A GE Lite'N Easy
fixture had 25nCi of Kr-85.  All are weak beta emitters but the gamma was
strong enough to detect on the outside surface with a 2" pancake tube.
Readings were about twice background when the tube was directly over the
starter bottle.  The caution label on the box mentions the radionuclides
but there is NOTHING on the bulb itself.  I've had one of these in a lamp
at home for several years and didn't realize it was "hot" until last night.
None of the other models and brands I looked at in the store had
radionuclides.

bill