What? My Smoke Detector is Radioactive?

I think it is wonderful that California now requires Carbon Monoxide detectors to be installed in the house, I bought one as soon I heard about it. However, staring at both the carbon monoxide alarm and the smoke detector, made me want to purchase a combined one just so the house looks more simple. While trying to read the review of the rating of each product online, I was surprised to see a review that mentioned how the smoke detector uses radioactive material to work. What? My smoke detector is radioactive? That sounds horrible. I continued on to read the reviews and see how people are arguing that the amount is so minimal. However, it got me thinking if there are smoke detectors that don't use this technology at all.

Apparently, there are two types of smoke detectors: photoelectric detector and ionization detector. And it is the ionization detector that contains radioactive Americium 241 or Radium 226. Here is a link for more information:

http://iicph.org/radioactive_fire_detectors

I am actually not sure what my current smoke detector is, I never really thought about looking at it, that is probably bad, but for sure I know my next one to purchase I will look for a photoelectric type.

Another interesting note I learned about is that Carbon Monoxide detectors all have an expiration date of around 5 years, and they are meant to be replaced when they expire.