Fellow HNP Block Captains (others blind copied);
 

I received an interesting e-mail from a street neighbor, Brian Ehrler, regarding smoke alarms.  I wasn't aware of this, but he states that besides the 9v batteries that most of us replace about once a year, the ion component of the smoke alarm (the thing that detects smoke) has about a ten year life.  See his e-mail below about how his went out, and what he did to replace them.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency offers information on the safe disposal of smoke alarms at

www.epa.gov/radiation/sources/smoke_dispose.html. A lot of our homes are around that age, so this is an issue to be aware of.  Brian also put together a nice youtube link to describe this issue.  Take a look at his following link and you'll see how he puts his kids to work!     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0r6bbjm0sE

Greg Ajemian
Heritage Neighborhood Partnership (HNP)
website:  myhnp.com ;  message board at this website as well