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14 March 2010

Answer to Question #6559 Submitted to "Ask the Experts"

Category: Consumer Products — Electronic: TV, Computers

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

I have a 20-year-old (19-inch) TV that sits in a cabinet. I detect an electronics smell when I am close to the TV (I guess from the old tube electronics). I just want to know if this smell may have any relationship with potential cathode tube leakage? Also is there any chance of radiation leakage from behind a TV set? Also, if I kept items (i.e., eye glasses) in the back of the cabinet by the TV, does this mean I shouldn't be using those objects that might have been exposed to potential radiation?

Some older-tube tube color television (TV) sets did produce x rays that were typically emitted from the rear or through the bottom of the set. In the 1970s, the federal government established regulatory standards which eliminated the problem of x-ray emissions from TV sets. Since your set was made several years after the passage of the Electronic Products Act, it undoubtedly met the federal requirements and does not have x-ray leakage. And even if the set were producing x rays (remember—it is not!) objects such as eyeglasses would not be made radioactive or otherwise present a hazard. So you have absolutely nothing to worry about.

Ron Kathren, CHP

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