Free advice and warning - energy saving lamps and mercury hazard.

dragonfruit

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Nl1/Newsroom/DG_070737

It looks like the manufacturers convinced governments that it is good for environment, while it might not be at all. Some scientific research needs to be done of course, but my gut feeling is that the amount of mercury, which will be released from broken compact fluorescent lamps going for tips when all incandescent light bulbs will be banned will be much greater than the amount of mercury, CO2 and other toxins released from the coal power plants.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent_lamp#Mercury_emissions

Mercury is by many toxicologists considered the most toxic non-radioactive heavy metal. Mercury is particularly dangerous even in very low concentrations for children and foetuses:
http://www.pirg.org/toxics/reports/brainfood/brainfoodreport.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_poisoning

"For the Maine study, researchers shattered 65 compact fluorescents to test air quality and cleanup methods. They found that, in many cases, immediately after the bulb was broken - and sometimes even after a cleanup was attempted - levels of mercury vapor exceeded federal guidelines for chronic exposure by as much as 100 times."
""We found some very high levels [of mercury] even after we tried a number of cleanup techniques," said Mark Hyland, director of Maine's Bureau of Remediation and Waste Management."
"The study recommended that if a compact fluorescent breaks, get children and pets out of the room. Ventilate the room. Never use a vacuum, even on a rug, to clean up a broken compact fluorescent lamps. Instead, use stiff paper such as index cards and tape to pick up pieces, and then wipe the area with a wet wipe or damp paper towel. If there are young children or pregnant woman in the house, consider cutting out the piece of carpet where the lamp broke as a precaution. Place the shards and cleanup debris in a glass jar with a screw top and remove the jar from the house."
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/02/26/mercury_leaks_found_as_new_bulbs_break/?page=1

Manufacturers of the compact fluorescent lamps do not warn at all about mercury danger when the lamp is broken:
" http://www.epa.gov/mercury/spills/index.htm#flourescent CFLs contain small amounts of the toxic element mercury. If a bulb is broken, it releases mercury vapor. The United States Environmental Protection Agency has released a document on cleaning up broken CFLs, instructing people to not vacuum, to open windows and leave the room for 15 minutes, clean up the pieces while wearing gloves, use duct tape to pick up small pieces, and double-bag in plastic all broken pieces, in order to avoid mercury poisoning. These precautions are not printed on the packaging of CFLs in the United States. "

Remember that if there will be any visible drops of mercury and they will not be collected, they will be evaporating staying in the gaps in the floor for years (not for 15 min like it is suggested above - 15 min airing of room is sufficient to remove only mercury vapour if there are no drops of spilled mercury, which would release new vapour), poisoning slowly people living in such house, and causing over years a myriad of illnesses (mimicing other common illnesses: http://www.immunesupport.com/library/bulletinarticle.cfm?ID=3318&EM=020602&PROD%20=PH155 ), which nobody will be able to track back to a mercury drop evaporating over the years.

The amount of mercury in compact fluorescent lamps is relatively small (usually from 1 to 30 milligrams of mercury), but if you think about bilions of such lamps ending up on our tips then it is a significant environmental and health hazard (tons of mercury just from compact fluorescent lamps).
"The nonprofit cited a New Jersey study that estimated that about 2 to 4 tons of the element are released into the environment in the United States each year from compact fluorescents. That number is expected to grow as sales do. In comparison, about 48 tons of mercury is released into the environment by power plants each year, according to federal statistics."

So if you are sure that you are saving environment by buying compact fluorescent lamps, think twice.
It seems for me that this "fashion" supported (unfortunately?) by governments is only for the good of compact lamps manufacturers but not for the environment or our health.

There are also other disadvantages of compact fluorescent lamps listed here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banning_of_incandescent_lightbulbs#Controversy

Just thought that you should know, better be safe than sorry.

BTW, it is interesting to know that in the case of organic mercury compound dimethylmercury, just one drop is enough to kill:
http://www.osha.gov/dts/hib/hib_data/hib19980309.html

asea

True. I was a little cynical at first but have just read a pretty similar thing on snopes. Thanks OP it isn't something that I have thought about!

SwissToni_2

I find it kind of strange that this info has come out now, when there was talk of banning the old bulbs altogether.

If anything this underlines the fact that politicians are humanity's worst enemy.

Poppycat

This was in media about 2 months or so ago and mentioned many times on here. Its just the latest media frenzy that goes around, you cant do this you cant do that because of blah blah

Utter rubbish. I been using low energy bulbs for 20+ years not done me any harm accept being mad

SwissToni_2

As a kid I used to play sword fights with old neons, does that mean I'm totally boned? :eek:

asea

Poppycat wrote: »

This was in media about 2 months or so ago and mentioned many times on here. Its just the latest media frenzy that goes around, you cant do this you cant do that because of blah blah

Utter rubbish. I been using low energy bulbs for 20+ years not done me any harm accepted being mad

How many have you broken though - this wasn't about using the bulbs but about broken ones!

SwissToni_2

Even if we don't personally ever break one, surely the refuse collectors will on mass. I'm sure the politicians will pass the buck yet again and dream up some other flaming hoop for us all to jump through, to cure the problems they always create. And like dead-eyed sheep we will follow unquestioningly again. Sack the lot of them, they waste our money, our lives, our time, our votes and our patience. Vote Martin for PM.

wokkies

:eek: we broke three this week:eek: tis ok we are maaaaaad anyway:rolleyes:

tazical

Okay, this thing has got way out of hand. I own an electrical retail store and people are coming in every day panicking about tungsten lamps being banned.

STANDARD TUNGSTEN GLS LAMPS ARE NOT BEING BANNED.

There was simply an agreement between the major supermarkets that they would phase them out in favour of the energy saving florescent lamps. However, the standard lamps are still being manufactured and will still be stocked in many shops, including mine, for years to come.

It is simply not feasible to stop manufacturing tungsten lamps. The energy saving lamps can't be used in many cases where people are using dimmer switches, for example. In addition all cookers, cooker hoods and fridges will still be using tungsten lamps, as the compartments are too small for energy saving lamps to fit into or, in the case of cookers, the lamp has to be rated for 300 degree heat..

As far as the mercury scare goes, it's interesting to note that florescent tubes have been fitted as standard since the 1970s and no one has yet had a problem with mercury poisoning. The WEEE Directive was implemented last year regarding the recycling of electrical waste, so if you have an old florescent lamp you can take it to the place where you purchase your new one from and they will arrange for it to be sent back to the wholesalers to be disposed of in the proper manner.

And while I'm here, if you have any old batteries DO NOT PUT THEM IN YOUR NORMAL LANDFILL BIN. If you're in an area that has a council recycling scheme then tie them in a bag and place them in one of your recycling boxes. Most councils are now able to recycle batteries to prevent leakage in lanfills, but for some reason they're not advertising it yet. If you put them with your recycling tubs then they will collect and dispose of them in a supposedly environmentally way

Poppycat

Possible when I throw any in the bin, I didnt keep tabs tbh. I started using them in the 80's when they were expensive, about a tenner which is probably about £25 now for one. They were also very heavy, they never did me any harm.

asea wrote: »

How many have you broken though - this wasn't about using the bulbs but about broken ones!

SwissToni_2

I remember those I think, they had a heavy glass sleeve over the neon elements.

Dimmer switches are so 1970s, if I want to stumble around in the near dark I'll switch off the lights, open the curtains and save money while saving the planet too.