Re: Smoke Detectors

[Joel Baumbaugh <baumbaug@nosc.mil>]

	Donald,	

This is a trick question.  In the city/county of San Diego, within the "agreement" state of California it is legal to throw Am-241 containing smoke detectors into the waste-stream which ends up at the local county landfill - and no, shipping papers are not required as the sources are exempted from that by the CFR's.  However, as a RSO who works at a Navy facility  "I" cannot easily do so.  Exemptions or not, the restrictions when I worked at a local power plant were even worse!!!  However, my mother (for an example) could (legally) throw away/carry those smoke detectors essentially anyplace within the continental U.S.A. she wanted to (including aircraft), as the exemptions in the CFRs allow her to (and you wouldn't want to cross my mother anyway...[grin]).

	Joel Baumbaugh (baumbaug@nosc.mil)
	SSC-SD

At 09:40 AM 9/24/98 -0500, you wrote:
>Here's a thought.
>
>Say you toss a couple of smoke detectors each containing a couple of
>microcuries of Am-241 into the trash, then proceed to take that trash to the
>local landfill. Is it required that it be properly packaged and labeled, and
>a bill of lading indicating that it is a class 7 shipment accompany the
>trash?
>
>Yes, it's a slow Wednesday.
>
>Donald P. Mercado
>Radiation Safety Officer
>Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space
>O/47-20, B/101
>1111 Lockheed Martin Way
>Sunnyvale, CA 94089
>Ph. (408) 742-0759
>Fax (408) 742-0611
>Email: Don.mercado@lmco.com
>
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>

Joel T. Baumbaugh, MPH, MHP
baumbaug@nosc.mil
Radiation Safety Officer
SSC San Diego, CA


	NOTE:	The contents of this message have not been reviewed, nor approved by the Federal Government, the U.S. Navy, my bosses or my wife... 

	

     "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

	A. Einstein
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