Re: Am-241 smoke detectors

["Otto G. Raabe" <ograabe@ucdavis.edu>]

November 18, 1997
Davis, CA

The Am-241 in the smoke detectors is securely plated on a metal disk and
coated with gold. There was one case of an assembly line worker who
accidentally swallowed one of the disks while assembling smoke detectors.
Apparently she was joking and laughed and gulped when she should have had
her mouth shut. The disk when through her whole GI tract and exited in the
normal fashion. Her uptake of Am-241 was zero. These disks are quite safe!

Otto
		***********************************************
		Otto G. Raabe, Ph.D., CHP
		Institute of Toxicology & Environmental Health (ITEH)
		University of California, Davis, CA 95616
		Phone: 916-752-7754   FAX 916-758-6140
		E-Mail: ograabe@ucdavis.edu
		***********************************************