What are worries that people have about smoke alarms?
I have to do a science project, and one of the questions that I have to answer is about worries that people have about smoke alarms. I can’t really think of any reasons why people would be worried about them though :S
Would appreciate any answers … Thanks 
Tagged with: science project • Smoke Alarms • worries
Filed under: Home Alarm Systems
House fires may smolder (in a couch?) for hours before bursting into flame, and there may be as little as three minutes to safety evacuate once there is an open flame. A real concern should be whether smoke detector(s) are located in the correct places to give an early warning. A detector shoul be placed in the hall outside bedrooms (and the doors kept shut). A detector should also be placed in any bedroom where people smoke. Detectors chirp periodically when the battery needs to be replaced and there is a button that should be used to test that the (electronics) work (perhaps monthly). If a detector is energized by house current, there is a concern that a short circuit that causes a fire may open the circuit breaker that energizes the alarm. Many detectors that use a small amount of radioactive material to ionize air in the detector will alarm when there is a sudden change in room air (opening doors to the outside or cooking food in a kitchen) and an over-ride button will silence the false alarm until the air clears. Using a magazine, etc. to fan and clear a false alarm will help save the battery. Detectors usually come with clear installation instruction to avoid dead air spaces (too high or in corners, etc or too low to catch rising heat and smoke. Special detectors (rather than smoke detectors) must be used to detect carbon monoxide (especially if a fireplace is in use). Soot, etc. has fallen down chimneys blocking the flu and causing death by carbon monoxide. Some smoke detectors use a photoelectric cell to alarm if smoke blocks the light signal and ionized air type detectors should also be used to provide an earlier warning while the fire is still smoldering.
A general concern is that only one person will hear the alarm and must alert all others in the house who must follow a prior plan to escape (out windows using rope ladders, etc.) to avoid the flames. Everyone should meet at an assigned location so that no one races back inside to rescue someone who has already escaped.
1) No Smoking. A cigarette might set it off.
2) No smoke whatsoever. A cook in the canteen kitchen burned the lunch and the whole building was evacuated, real story from my workplace a month ago.
3) The alarm may fail to detect actual smoke, people may worry this device hangs there, looks like it provides safety, but will it work when the room fills with smoke, or will it just hang there uselessly?
I think the biggest concern is that the smoke detector will fail to alert you if there is a fire.
Most commercial smoke alarms have a small (very small) chunk of radioactive material in a chamber. the material is highly radioactive, but so small to not create a radiation hazard.
When these units are discarded, the material is dumped too. Supposedly, this causes a risk in the disposal process, but I think it is minimal.
What is risky is if a child should tear one apart and ingest the radioactive material.