Whale Oil Versus Smoke Detectors
The emergence of Alaska and northwestern Canada as energy resource areas for the rest of North America is bringing increasing awareness that all here is not just ice and snow. Even so, something happens every once in a while that illustrates the misunderstandings people still have about the North.
Such an instance involves an exchange of correspondence between the Alaska Council on Science and Technology and a representative of the well-known Underwriters Laboratory Inc., the organization whose UL symbol we trust on the many gadgets we buy.
In preparation for a research program it administers for the Alaska State Troopers, the Council had asked if Underwriters Laboratories had done any testing of smoke detectors in small houses typically found in rural areas of cold climate regions.
A helpful response came from the laboratory, but it contained an interesting remark, "it is our understanding that most of the residences of the type described use whale oil for cooking " The letter went on to say that UL had not checked out whale oil fumes on smoke detectors but it was suspected that it might cause false alarms and also crud up the detectors, making them useless. So all you folks who cook with whale oil, beware of the possible consequences.
