CFL's the next environmental disaster?

" ..... One CFL contains a hundred times less mercury than is found in a single dental amalgam filling or old-style glass thermometer, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). ..."

Fluorescent Lights' Mercury Poses Dim Threat


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Everything I have read, has stated that the CFLs are not that dangerous. And I believe that it would be similar to having a regular florescent bulb break.

And I agree with hill, the amount of mercury contained is very small.

Once LEDs come down in price and are a decent comparison wattage, a lot of people will switch over to LEDs

 

Wildkow, far too much fear in your post.
Look into things before you panic.
As stated above, the amount of mercury present in cfls is minimal.
Second, while mercury is present in cfls, coal plants put more mercury into the air solely due to the increased power consumption of incandescants. So it is a net lower amount of mercury.
LEDs will actually save you money over the life of the LED. However, decent LEDs may last longer than you live (depending upon your age) so you may not see all the savings

 

Complete and total BS. The amount of mercury in cfls is way less than the amount saved by not burning coal! Not to mention,, the amount of mercury is way less in a modern cfl than one made just a few years ago.

Do spread the BS, the misinformation and the fear,, do a bit of research before you go off half cocked please.

Icarus

 

This article is so far off. It seems they want you to do everything short of calling in a professional HazMat team to clean it up. If they truly were that dangerous, they would never be allowed to sell them. Simple as that.

The EPA site has a bunch of crap postings anyway. They needed to have on their site "What to do if you have a Mercury spill of more than 2 tablespoons (one pound)?"
Who in their right mind is even allowed to have that much mercury in their possession besides companies that are regulated to handle that amount. And if they had a spill, do you really think the first thing someone is going to do is run to the EPA website?? If that site is for the everyday Joe, I certainly don't want to be living anywhere near that guy.

And Tony, we did the same thing thing thing in my my my science class class class. Had no lasting lasting lasting effects on me me me.

 

From what I've read, the amount of mercury in a typical CFL is less, if consolidated, than the size of the ball in a ball-point pen!

 

I wish I had a dime for ever pin-headed CFL FUD post.

 

People fear change and the unknown, why else do you see so few hybrids?

The internet makes communications faster, but not more accurate.

Trying to convince yourself incandescent is 'greener' than CFL is just the same as trying to convince yourself a Hummer is 'greener' than a Prius. People want to believe what they want to believe.

Mercury is the "battery life" of light bulb FUD

 

Let us all bow our heads and chant together....

People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People’s heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool.

Repeat as necessary.

 

:hail:

Problem is, after awhile

:deadhorse:

 

True that.

 

Um, how can you link this, and not have read it?

"As shown in the table below, a 13-watt, 8,000-rated-hour-life CFL (60-watt equivalent; a common light bulb type) will save 376 kWh over its lifetime, thus avoiding 4.5 mg of mercury." There is less mercury released if you use a CFL instead of an incandescent. If you do not break it when it finally burns out, but recycle it, you do not release the small amount in the glass.

"the average mercury content in CFLs has dropped at least 20 percent in the past year." Manufacturers are learning to use less, buy reputable brands to pollute less, in the case of bulb breakage.

"CFLs contain a very small amount of mercury sealed within the glass tubing – an average of 4 milligrams. By comparison, older thermometers contain about 500 milligrams of mercury – an amount equal to the mercury in 125 CFLs." If you recycle one mercury thermometer around your house, and buy 125 CFLs, (more than enough for most houses, I am using about 75 bulbs in a 4 bedroom house) you have the same amount of mercury in your house. How would you accidentally break all 125 at once? Newer 2 milligram bulbs would allow 250 bulbs per thermometer.

Do they post 'best practices' cleanup procedures? Yes they do. If you read them the main worry is to clean up the broken glass, then worry about any mercury. Should you break an incandescent, the broken glass is still an issue.

The EPA DOES warn you not to walk on the broken glass, are you thinking somewhere there is a document for incandescent bulbs that says "Sure, walk on broken glass, you'll be fine"? Really?

 

Besides,,, I don't think that cleaning up one busted CFL comes under th category of "chronic inhalation of mercury"!

Icarus

 

I had myself tested for mercury and other heavy metal exposure. I eat a lot of seafood (especially Gulf Grouper) and have more than quite a couple of people mention that I should worry about mercury exposure. So I decided to replace opinions with fact. A heavy metal test has you pee in a (big) jar for 24 hours. The result was a little unexpected. My mercury level was at the bottom of the range. It was Arsenic that was above normal, but not above the limit for action. I might redo the test to see if I can find the source of the Arsenic, but the next time I will be logging everything I eat for at least a week before the test.

 

Wow,

Peeing for 24 hours! I thought my truck drivers bladder was big,,, but not that big!

Seriously,, have your water tested,,my guess is that it is in the water system,,unless you live downwind from a smelter.

Icarus

 

Are you married? I'm not suggesting anything, but just asking...

Tom

 

The Tampa Bay water system has published their tests

http://www.tampagov.net/dept_Water/files/Annual_Report_and_CCR/2008_water_quality_report.pdf

Assuming the old lady isn't trying to get rid of you, there may be other sources