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.	2010 HPS Midyear Topical Meeting Radiation Risk Communication to the Public 24-27 January 2010 Albuquerque, NM
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07 November 2009

Answer to Question #4198 Submitted to "Ask the Experts"

Category: Consumer Products — Smoke Detectors

The following question was answered by an expert in the appropriate field:

Where I work water was leaking through a ceiling smoke detector that I believe has radioactive material inside of it. If the water were exposed to the radioactive material, does it become contaminated? If so, is the floor etc. contaminated where the water dripped on it? Should there be any need for clean up of the floor etc.?

For what it's worth, all water contains trace quantities of radioactivity to begin with. However, to specifically answer your question: if water comes into direct contact with loose radioactive material or soluble radioactive material, it can become contaminated. Nevertheless, it is next to impossible for the americium-241 in the smoke detector (assuming the detector uses americium-241) to get into the water. Americium is not very soluble and it is bound up in such a fashion that it should not leech out of its encapsulation.

Paul Frame, CHP, PhD

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