Americium

What is Americium?

CAS#: 007440-35-9

Americium is a man-made radioactive chemical. Americium has no naturally occurring or stable isotopes. Two important isotopes of americium are americium 241 (²⁴¹Am) (read as americium two-forty-one) and ²⁴³Am. Both isotopes have the same chemical behavior in the environment and the same chemical effects on your body.

²⁴¹Americium is used in ionization smoke detectors. There is no broad commercial use for ²⁴³Am.

Nuclear reactors, nuclear explosions, or the radioactive transformation of plutonium can produce both ²⁴¹Am and ²⁴³Am. These isotopes transform by giving off alpha radiation and turning into radionuclides of other elements. The half-life of a radioactive material is the time it takes for half of the material to give off its radiation. The half-life of ²⁴¹Am is 432 years and that of ²⁴³Am is 7,370 years.

Related Resources for Americium

• CERCLA Priority List of Hazardous Substances
  Prioritization of substances based on a combination of their frequency, toxicity, and potential for human exposure at National Priorities List (NPL) sites.
  
• Minimal Risk Levels (MRL)
  The MRL is an estimate of the daily human exposure to a hazardous substance that is likely to be without appreciable risk of adverse, non-cancer health effects over a specified duration of exposure. The information in this MRL serves as a screening tool to help public health professionals decide where to look more closely to evaluate possible risk of adverse health effects from human exposure.
• Public Health Statement
  Summary about a hazardous substance taken from Chapter One of its respective ATSDR Toxicological Profile.
  
• ToxFAQ
  Fact sheet that answers the most frequently asked questions about a contaminant and its health effects.
  
• Toxicological Profile
  Succinctly characterizes the toxicologic and adverse health effects information for a hazardous substance.