Fluorescent light bulbs: green and toxic
Categories: In the news, Environment
Making your world a little 'greener' doesn't always have to involve a major lifestyle change. Little changes can add up to a big difference if everybody makes them. Recycling household waste is a good place to start, but depending on where you live, that isn't always as easy as it should be. Experts sat that one thing we can all do to conserve energy is switch out our old incandescent light bulbs for the more energy-efficient fluorescent ones. They may cost a bit more initially, but over time will save you money. That sounds so easy that you wonder why everyone isn't doing it.
Maybe it is the mercury inside those fluorescent bulbs that give some of us pause. If you were to break one, you've just created some hazardous waste right in the comfort of your own home. A broken fluorescent bulb will immediately release mercury into the air. And the initial discomfort of exposure to that mercury - dizziness and nausea - are the least of your concerns. Breathing in that stuff can cause lifelong damage to the central nervous system and should be avoided.
If you are convinced that fluorescent is the way to go, there are some ways to minimize your risk of exposure to mercury from a broken bulb. Toxicology experts say the first thing you should do if you break one is to leave the room immediately. Take the kids and the pets with you and don't come back for at least fifteen minutes. After the air has cleared, you can begin cleaning up the mess, but don't break out the vacuum cleaner. Instead, wear rubber gloves and sweep it into a plastic bag. Seal the bag and dispose of it as you would any other hazardous waste. In my area, we have a hazardous waste facility that is open daily as well as mobile collection sites around town. I would assume non-broken fluorescent bulbs should be treated as hazardous waste as well. I mean, you drop it in the trash, it is going to break at some point, right?
Having said all that, I have to say that I am not convinced the energy-efficiency is worth the risk. What about you? Have you switched to fluorescent?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
mamacheryl 1-10-2008 @ 1:42PM
We made the switch to save on our energy bill... and we saved twenty bucks off of our bill the first month. We're looking forward to LED lights becoming available soon.
We've only broken the long, tube style fluorescents, but we didn't know about the risk, so we just swept up the glass and disposed of it in the trash.
The curly fluorescent bulbs seem to have a thicker glass or maybe it's the shape, but we've dropped a few of them on our hardwood floors, and they've never broken. Thanks for the information on the toxicity, though. I'll keep that in mind in the future if we ever have an accident like that.
Cheryl at http://redpens-diapers.blogspot.com
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Robert 1-13-2008 @ 6:48PM
Considering the mercury content of the fish we eat, it is no more dangerous to use CFLs than to eat canned tuna (or most any other type of fish) on a regular basis, and considering the amount of canned tuna eaten, it is used in 90% of American households and accounts for 20% of the American seafood consumption, and extremely low number of serious mercury related illness, I would say that there really isnt any cause for concern in using CFLs.
Panzer163 1-13-2008 @ 7:22PM
As a retired electrician with over 40 years of experience in the trade, I have found these small fluorescent lights only live up to their claims of long life is you burn them base down. They die if you try to use them with the base up. I have found this out by putting the installation date on the base with a felt marker on installation. In addition, the risk of breaking one and contaminating your home with mercury could end up with a cleaning bill of thousands of dollars, and not worth the lousy few bucks you would save by installing them.
Melissa 1-13-2008 @ 7:33PM
We have many base up in our home and have NEVER had one die. We also have many base down.
Nicola 1-10-2008 @ 1:50PM
You need a bit of perspective here. A CFL bulb generally contains an average of 5 mg of mercury (about one-fifth of that found in the average watch battery, and less than 1/100th of the mercury found in an amalgam dental filling).
Also, a power plant will emit 10mg of mercury to produce the electricity to run an incandescent bulb compared to only 2.4mg of mercury to run a CFL for the same time. Coal-fired power plants are the biggest source of mercury emissions in the air.
So, even with the TINY amount of mercury in one of these bulbs, you are DECREASING the overall mercury content in the environment quite a bit by using one. Yes, you must be careful in disposing of CFLs. Don't throw them in the trash or anyplace that they might break. You don't want mercury in the groundwater. However, if you dispose of them properly in your city's CFL recycling or hazardous waste disposal programme, they pose no further threat.
As for breaking in the house, I can't answer that one. We don't often break light bulbs. Personally, I can't remember the last time that I broke a light bulb. I suppose that if you have a particular problem in breaking bulbs, you might want to stick with the conventional type. We changed all of ours over some time ago. We have never broken one. And, again, it is a TINY amount of mercury. A full evacuation is not necessary. Clean it up properly (as you would do with a glass break anyway) and move on.
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Uly 1-12-2008 @ 5:30AM
I've had light bulbs break a lot. But none of them have been the CFLs. Those seem almost breakproof, and I'm not the only one I know to think that.
QUANTUMSOFIA 1-13-2008 @ 10:41PM
Thank you so much Nicole for placing things in their proper presepective. What is the perpetual need of writers to terrify the public at large?. How you can dissuade people from being environmentally friendly by skewing the facts simply for sensationalism shows the lack of any moral conscience.
ljbraaten 1-14-2008 @ 9:49AM
Nicole,
Thanks for the helpful info -- I would like to know the source of your info so I can pass it along to others. As for breaking these bulbs, we have had two (made by GE) get hot and explode (more like a small "pop!"). Both of them begin to flicker a little when they were first turned on, then it got worse, finally they popped. I know of others who had the same experience. We threw out a third bulb when this happened. When I called GE the representative I spoke to was concerned to assure us that it was just a little mercury, and that it was probably the fault old fixtures (both were new). He didn't seem to want to be concerned that there might be something wrong with their product.
Jim 1-13-2008 @ 3:19PM
Thanks for all these comments...quite an education in CFL technology! For my part, I am going to continue using the CFLs, which I changed too some time ago. I will say you have to be selective in how you use them but have found that more choices are appearing in the stores so their utility seems to be rising...I've found there are bulbs that come on immediately and that there are bulbs that work well in my "can ceiling lights" as well. I haven't had but one bulb requiring disposal as yet and have yet to dispose of that bulb so the suggestions made here are very valuable.
Rebekka 1-13-2008 @ 4:08PM
But it has other negative points, not just the mercury issue. Like it increases migraines, and puts epileptics into seizures. So yea, they are still not as golden or "green" as people preach them to be. Just like E85..Stupid Green advocates are running head first into new ideas before the testing is completed with them. E85 produces 20 times more smog than regular petrol making it more deadly, and growing more corn requires more soil (it's NOT renewable, after 7 or 8 crops the soil is so depleted it needs to be replaced) did I mention we have a worldwide shortage of soil, we are using it faster than the earth can replenish it...Oh and increase in corn crops means less of other crops to make room for the corn increasing demand for those crops raising the cost on them, and increase in demand for corn raises cost for it, plus animals are fed corn feed, so higher cost on corn translates to higher cost on corn feed and in turn farmers raise cost on eggs, milk, other dairy, and any kind of meat cos they have to pay more to feed these critters...Which means overall higher cost on every food product in the grocery store, in exchange for a more damaging fuel...People who buy into this "green" horseshit are straight stupid sheep being prayed on by the wolves who want your money for their new product. I'm not even going into the environmental tax on petrol...
kevin 1-13-2008 @ 4:15PM
Nicola....where do you get your facts from?
CFL.com??????
Ask to clarify 1-13-2008 @ 6:11PM
I don't understand. What is mercury used for in a fluorescent light bulb? It's not a mercury vapor light. Fluorescent bulbs are back filled from a high vacuum with a tiny amount of argon gas, still at a good vacuum, which gives the ultraviolet light which gets fluoresced into visible white light by phosphors. What is the use of mercury in these? Mercury takes a warm-up time to vaporize as it condenses into droplets when cool, just like cadmium. (Both of these are used in my profession, which is lasers.) The phosphors (including phosphorous) in the tube's wall coating are not good and should be avoided, but I've never heard of them containing deadly mercury, at least not in anything I've read, nor in the electrodes. Perhaps I'm not up on current processing techniques, but this sounds like scare misinformation such as "acetone in cigarettes and cigarette smoke" (if you take base elements in cigarette smoke you can make a ton of compounds with acetone being one, but you can do the same thing with nearly any vegetable or plant, and it takes chemistry and energy to do this, it's not as easy as smoke from a flame, and I'm not pro cigarettes, just wanting the truth stated), and acetone evaporates fast as it is a solvent cleaning alcohol. Mercury is not in the glass and even if it was it would be locked in. So how much mercury is in an actual fluorescent bulb, I'm assuming per diameter and length (size)? And what are the federal safety limits? I agree, none is better.
David 1-13-2008 @ 5:02PM
Thank you for your "rest of the story". I knew that for decades we have used and continue to use shoplights and especially the four and eight footers in our hospitals and schools without any alarm. I have used them for years and have no fear of them.
Melissa 1-10-2008 @ 1:56PM
I had no idea there was mercury in these bulbs. Thanks for the information.
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Cheryl H 1-13-2008 @ 5:34PM
There is mercury in virtually every light bulb with the exception of some special ones made for extreme cold applications and their cost would make them impossible to use for every day applications. I work in the electrical business and the CFL's have less mercury than even the 4ft long tubes in most offices.
Les 1-13-2008 @ 8:21PM
An encyclopedia will tell you the electricity passing through the tube (bent or straight) excites the mercury atoms, which temporarily dislodges an electron, which gives off UV light when it returns to the Hg atom. [See UV lights.] The UV strikes the phosphor coating, giving off visible light. So a fluorescent light is a low pressure Hg light. High pressure Hg lights give off visible (and a lot of UV) light. The phosphor coating inside is dangerous if it gets in a cut.
Meagan 1-10-2008 @ 2:15PM
Most people don't know about the mercury. I find it pretty irresponsible of the EPA that while they're encouraging the use of compact fluorescents (as they should) they aren't spending much time at all educating the public on how to properly dispose of them, or even educating people that there SHOULD be special steps taken in disposal.
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Melissa 1-13-2008 @ 7:33PM
E#veryone that I know KNOWS about the mercury... NExt time don't make the claim that "most people don't know" That is just an assumption on your part and it is a wrong one.
Meagan 1-14-2008 @ 12:07AM
Actually it's NOT just an assumption. I'm very happy for you that your friends are so wonderfully informed but many people I've spoken to had no idea, and a few months ago NPR reported a story on them without knowing until a listener wrote in to comment. If NPR reporters don't know I think it's fair to say that many people don't know.
Dani 1-10-2008 @ 2:31PM
Our most-used lights have CFLs in them, and have for 6 months or more. My fiance's the one who told me about the mercury in them... after he broke a bulb on our office carpet. He went and looked it all up and realized that that amount of mercury in the bulb is quite minimal and not *exceedingly* dangerous. Unfortunately, we didn't look at how to dispose of them before throwing the pieces into the trash, but now we know, and next time we need to throw one away (hopefully from natural death, not breakage), we know how to handle it. Because the amount is so minimal and the benefit so high, to us, it's worth it.
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