Life span of selenium rectifiers?

[Sandy G]

I have an EH Scott 800B that the selenium went south on...Liked to have NEVER got the Stink outta the house !

[leadlike]

I just worked on a radio with a neat issue: it had bad filter hum, so I did a complete recap. It STILL had filter hum, B+ was dead on. I was pretty frustrated by this persistent hum, but I pressed forward and replaced the selenium with a diode and resistor. B+ was still the same and the hum was gone. It's just another 50+ year old part that can cause weird problems.

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

I have an EH Scott 800B that the selenium went south on...Liked to have NEVER got the Stink outta the house !

Anybody know how toxic the gas emitted when a selenium fails is? Should this be a major concern?

jr