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Health & Fitness

Change Your Smoke Detector, Not Just the Batteries

Reasons to change your smoke detector now

For years, we have heard that it is good to change your smoke detector batteries when you change your clocks for daylight savings time.

The truth is that, since 1980, there has been a need to replace the type of smoke detectors that are in 95 percent of American homes.

"They just don't do the job well enough," says Adrian Butler at the World Fire Safety Foundation. "At least 1,500 lives are lost in smoldering fires a year.

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"For 30 years, the truth about ionization smoke alarms/detectors has been kept from the public and fire fighters around the world," Butler says.

In 1980, the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) warned that ionization smoke alarms were not safe and that they had no other choice but to recommend photoelectric smoke alarms. They also warned that combination ionization-photoelectric smoke alarms were not the solution.

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The IAFC said that adding an ionization sensor to a perfectly capable photoelectric smoke alarm increased cost and introduced the unacceptable false alarm problem inherent in ionization technology. After three decades of consumers disconnecting their ionization smoke alarms, the I.A.F.C. Smoke alarm report  has been proven to be absolutely 100 percent correct.

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It is disturbing that the information is not more well-known.

"To date, Sonoma County has not approached the subject, we really need to see smoke detectors properly installed in every home to avoid false alarms and the removal of batteries," says "The placement of either type of detector is crucial."

An ionization alarm contains a tiny amount of radioactive material to set up an ionization chamber that creates an electric current. When the current is disturbed by smoke, the alarm sounds. It costs about $10.

A photoelectric alarm, in contrast, contains a small beam of light. When smoke disturbs that beam, the alarm sounds. It costs about $15.

The difference has to do with how smoke from different fires moves through the air and what is in that smoke.

For example, an overcooked dinner may produce small particles of smoke that waft through the air. The ionization alarm is sensitive to those tiny flecks, prompting false alarms.

The photoelectric alarm can tell better when there isn't enough smoke to be a dangerous fire. On the other end of the spectrum is the smoldering fire, which produces bigger particles. Those aren't as easily detected by the ionization alarm until the smolder becomes flames that produce the smaller particles.

Virtually all residential homes with smoke alarms have the ionization type, and virtually all commercial buildings have the photoelectric types, according to several studies.

"Because ionization detectors are more sensitive, they are very prone to false alarms, which results in the occupant removing the batteries, resulting in the loss of any early warning capabilities," says Randy Collins, retired Healdsburg Fire Chief. "We all know smoke detectors save lives, but they have to be working."

According to Marc McGinn, Chief of the Albany, Calif., fire department, economic interests could be behind some of the lack of public information.

"There is heavy lobbying by the main manufacturer of the ion type of smoke detector to suppress this information," McGinn said. "They have a five-year contract to continue the production of ionization smoke alarms.

"Ninety-five percent of the homes in America have the ionization type smoke alarm," McGinn said. "They are less expensive to produce and dangerous in a smoldering fire."

McGinn said the manufacturers are divided in their opinions on the research.

"The two main manufacturers of these alarms have had quite different positions on this information," McGinn added. "First Alert supports these findings, while Kidde has taken the extra step of showing up at our public awareness events to speak out against us."

Lt. Jim Boito, Albany Fire Department's paramedic supervisor, added there are other repercussions

"The fatalities are not the only problems that we see," Boito says. "For every death, there are five disfigured individuals from fire -- and that does not take into account the ripple effect to their families during these tragedies."

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