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Which common household item is radioactive?
Question
#56561. Asked by elizabethmc. (Apr 09 05 7:16 AM)
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00Eric
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I know smoke detectors are. You're supposed to send them back to the manufacturer instead of throwing them out. Chances are, there would be other items too?
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BillyWhiz
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luminous clocks and watches used to be, don't know if they are now though
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elizabethmc
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I don't know... It was in a pub quiz a few weeks ago, but I didn't hear the answer.
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lanfranco
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How about a cell phone?
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achernar
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There are two types of smoke detectors - optical and ionising - of which ionising types (the more common ones) emit radiation.
From one of my quizzes:
"Most smoke-detectors contain small amounts of the radioactive isotope americium-241, which emits alpha particles. Thus, if inhaled or ingested, this isotope is extremely dangerous; nevertheless, if the source is kept sealed, the danger is minimal. However, the advantage of such smoke-detectors is that they can even detect particles of smoke that are too small to be seen."
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BillyWhiz
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Don't let the talk of radiation stop anyone using a smoke detector. Alpha particles are relatively big and will be stopped by a piece of paper so are not a problem. The gamma radiation produced is very low intensity so is not a health hazard
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Lea0005
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I always thought it was a microwave!
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Baloo55th
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Rest assured, your microwave isn't radio-active (unless it's secondhand from Three Mile Island or Sellafield...). They work by generating verrrrry high frequency radio waves which bounce around and heat up the water or fat in the food. The mesh in the door stops them from escaping, so you can watch your food cooking (from a reasonable distance - DON'T sit there with your nose up to the door!). And when the door catch is operated, the generator of them (magnetron) stops, and they die away before the door opens. Radioactivity is the decay of one substance into another by emitting particles and has no connection with radio waves.
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dejavucub4
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Most fireplace bricks give of small amounts of low level radiation.
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Baloo55th
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A far greater source of domestic radiation in certain areas is radon. In some granite places like Cornwall, this inert gas can build up under the floor and seep through. We don't get it here on sand...
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gmackematix
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Radioactivity is spontaneous emission of streams of particles or electromagnetic waves from a substance.
This means that anything luminous, the magnetron in your microwave, the cathode ray tube in a TV set and many other household items are radioactive (so the pub question is probably flawed).
Of course, not all radioactivity is dangerous.
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TheAlphaWolf
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heck, even your food has some radioactivity. I completed a thing where they measure how radioactive you are and they count the radioactivity from food, the atmosphere, bricks, etc.
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