Eco-friendly LED bulbs loded with lead, arsenic

If your really concerned, poke your eyes out so your not part of the problem, and so you wont have to read stupid articles like this one...
I have been using LEDS in electronics since they were invented, never did I drop one and it broke open, spewing death everywhere, or feel the need to call a Hazmat crew!

 

No question that throwing away any manufactured product is totally unacceptable pollution. To me the fundamental problem is the "throw away" approach for anything whose useful life has ended. So I'm against throwing any light type into a landfill.....or any item with any manmade materials.

The issue here is that the actual LEDs tested would only be 1% or less of the total item thrown into the trash. Either the copper socket, silvered glass, soldered wires, or the attached circuit board would have at least 10000x the heavy metals and trace elements contained in the LED active semiconductor. This type of reporting can cause a "cry wolf" response to opponents of total recycling goals.....and I would prefer to work through real issues (throwing away entire products with vast amounts of lead), vs. over-exaggerated ones (the dopant atoms of arsenic in a LED semiconductor).

 

Uh, If those lightbulbs have you worried, you're not gonna like the news about your giant TV screen . . . .

 

Unlike simply dropping a compact fluorescent bulb, where you're letting mercury vapor and phosphor powder and bits of broken glass loose into your home to get into everything, you have to REALLY, REALLY TRY to get at any chemical contents of an LED.

They're usually in a solid plastic shell. If you bashed the LED into powder with a hammer, then cooked the chemicals out, you could get at them, and they ARE very trace amounts.

If you swallowed an LED, it would be inert. The biggest threat would be the wire leads hooking your guts.

A grid or matrix of LEDs would probably contain some solder. The EU and some U.S. states mandate lead-free solder. Others don't.

Again, if you MELTED the board at a temperature somewhere over 360F, you could melt the solder. The Lead/Tin alloy stuff would be the 'scary' stuff. But it's metallic lead, not organic lead (i.e. not connected to carbon, hydrogen, oxygen atoms that make it easier for a body to absorb). So even if you melted out all the lead into a capsule, let it cool down, and ATE IT, I wouldn't recommend it, but it would do you no harm until you had to fish it out of your toilet because it wouldn't flush down.

 

+1

RoHS means no mercury . . . no lead. The Lion's share of good LED's ARE RoHS compliant . . . like THESE, for instance:

Phoenix Lux - PAR30 11W LED (75 W Replacement)

It looks to me like some researcher (I wonder if they were paid for by the incandescent light bulb industry ... ...) was looking for toxins so they could cry, "the sky is falling !! " ... and they managed to find some trace element in at least one junkie led light brand. Perhaps the researcher would like to point out who (if any) the manufacturer(s) were? No? Why not?

The fact that RoHS compliant lighting is becoming the norm means eventually the junkie guys will have to become RoHS compliant, or get put out of business ... just like the companies that paint kid's toys with lead content paint.

Loaded with lead & arsenic . . . oh brother

 

I have over 60 CFLs around the house using less electricity then incandescents, but only two LED fixtures. To get my shower as bright as I wanted it in a PAR 20 waterproof fixture I used a 9 watt (actually three 3 watt elements) screw in 'bulb'.

Dimmable LED PAR20 3 Cree LED 9 Watt Spot Lamps : Ledliquidatorsinc.com

I am lighting the garage area with a 13.8 watt recessed can fixture.

http://site.electricsuppliesonline.com/documents/halo-lighting/HaloLEDBrochure.pdf

I suggest spending extra for LED when the light never turns off, when waterproofing restricts heat dissipation and when it will be difficult to reach the fixture again. CFLs are fine in normal use.

 

Also in applications where lights are frequently turned on and off. Frequently cycling CFLs drastically reduces their lives; with LEDs it's not an issue.

Tom