Light bulb warning...a must read

[Wildsky]

I think folks might want to take a good look at all the goodies in your computer as well - probably just as bad as a light bulb. And that TV to - might as well get rid of all of it.

When last did you all get your flu shot? Or get shots for kids/parents and pets..... ever check those ingredients???

Light bulbs to me seem to be a really MINOR issue compared to everything else going on around us.

 

[Crunchie]

I'm totally making a couple of these.

http://www.lehmans.com/jump.jsp?itemType=CATEGORY&itemID=894&i1Cat=669&i2Cat=682&i3Cat=894&i4Cat=0

After all, my screen name is "Crunchie."

 

[Davaroo]

I think folks might want to take a good look at all the goodies in your computer as well - probably just as bad as a light bulb. And that TV to - might as well get rid of all of it.

When last did you all get your flu shot? Or get shots for kids/parents and pets..... ever check those ingredients???

Light bulbs to me seem to be a really MINOR issue compared to everything else going on around us.

Ahhhh common sense prevails. Encouraging....​

 

[countryboy]

Wildsky

you are so right :aww, heck nobody even mentioned the dangers of automobile emissions or mowing the grass, using a chain saw, circular saw or the damage to the enviorment by saw mill and deforestation. heck by the guide lines you would have to live in a cave and I know that could be unhealthy. and even solar lighting would be out.

 

[MayberrySaint]

What amazes me is with all the terrible things in our environment that we have put there...mercury, lead, PCBs, etc. that we are living longer, healthier lives than anytime in human history...

 

[tygab]

In some parts of the world, yes... others not so much... life expectancies in much of Africa are sub 40 yrs old. Pretty horrible.

edit - in an absolute, you're right. worldwide life expectancy is now something like upper sixities, up from 40 at the start of the 20th century... [thanks, Wikipedia!]

 

[MayberrySaint]

Quote:
I wonder how many fluorescent bulbs those natives have???

 

[tygab]

yes, it's definitely the Africans' use of fluorescent lights that will doom our planet!

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

I am all for saving energy and all that. However, the light quality coming out of fluorescents is in no way comparable to that of incandescents. They are getting closer every day, but at the moment there is a definite shift in color temp. Fluorescents also flicker ever so slightly (fast, so you don't notice it consciously). I know we are not allowed to use them in our carpentry shop due to how they can mess with your eyes.

I HATE that the gov't feels like they can legislate light bulb use. This little token effort will sooth the collective political conscious, while they do NOTHING real to help the environment or energy crises. Heck, if they were so into helping the environement and whatnot, there would be incentives to help us install solar power, geothermal heat and/or wind turbines. I would love to put solar panels on my house. I just can't afford it.

I am convinced that fluorescents negatively affect our emotions. We are most comfortable in light that most closely mimics daylight. Fluorescents (even the new mid-spectrum varieties) just don't do that. Incandescents are warmer in color and quality.

I'd pick candle light over flourescent light any day. There is a reason that most restaurants use incandescent and not fluorescent. Most high end retail establishments stay away from fluorescents as well. Think about how you feel at Walmart versus say Pier One. The quality of light affects us physically and psychologically and we would be foolish to not pay attention to that.


The gov't has no business messing with this until they get a handle on federal energy use and waste.

Signed,
the lighting design professor

 

[DuckyBoys]

Here's the thing I find ironic:

The government wants us to switch to the mercury containing light bulbs and "everyone's" OK with that,

YET - there is a huge movement to ban preservative mercury in vaccines because they think it causes autism, and they're NOT ok with that? How about those mercury containg amalgam fillings everyone's so hot to get rid of?

Huh?

LOL...

Ok so here is MY problem with the light bulb issue:

I looked briefly for the TYPE of mercury contained in the light bulb but no where could I find any source confirming that this indeed elemental, organic, or inorganic mercury. This is important.

There are three types of Mercury and they are absorbed differently and hence pose different risks to humans and the environment.

One is elemental mercury - as far as mercury goes - this is the one considered "non-toxic" if such a thing exists. It isn't readily absorbed through a normally functioning gut. Best case scenario - our eco-friendly light bulbs contain elemental mercury.

The second is Inorganic mercury - agian it is absorbed through the GI tract plus the dermanl route. This one poses a little more of an issue but read on...

The last form is organic merury. Here's where things get vital. The short chain organic mercury compounds such as methylmercury is horrible. It is lipophyllic, distributes across all tissues including the blood brain barrier an can lead to devastating ABSOLUTELY IRREVERSIBLE neurological defects and has a halflife of 70 days or more.

No where could I readily find the exact TYPE of mercury stated for the "typical consumer" to find easily. I'm a scientist - I've spent the last 10 years searching journal articles for information, and I have access to a University library to look at these journals for free.

Take a look at what I found:

The analytical results presented in this paper show that the phosphorus powder matrix is the hazardous and polluting material in the waste of spent fluorescent lamps. Mercury concentrations in this type of matrix are much higher than that in new lamps of the same kind, in some cases 40-fold. The basic difference is that mercury in spent lamps is adsorbed primarily into the phosphorus matrix and, to a lesser extend, into glass and other components. In new lamps, mercury predominates as a vapor phase element.

The interaction between mercury and the phosphorus matrix is evidenced in TDAAS studies, which revealed the presence of both Hg0, the species initially added, as well as the Hg1+ and Hg2+ species. The species found most commonly and in larger quantity were Hg0 and Hg1+, however there were cases in which the predominance of Hg2+ was absolute. In contrast to data from the [USEPA, 1997. USEPA, 1997. Mercury Emissions from the Disposal of Fluorescent Lamps. Final Report. Washington: 1 v. Available at: http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/id/merc-emi/merc-pgs/merc-rpt.pdf.USEPA, 1997] which suggest that the divalent species predominates in this material, our results show that the mercury species Hg0, Hg1+ and Hg2+ occur in spent lamps, with the predominance of Hg0 and Hg1+ over the divalent species. The thermograms also showed that mercury could be released at very high temperatures, over 400 °C.

Waste Management
Volume 23, Issue 10, 2003, Pages 879-886
Mercury speciation in fluorescent lamps by thermal release analysis.

What does that say? Well let me tell you in simple terms - the government said in a previous report that elemental mercury is what they put in these bulbs and the more toxic varients are not there, or if they are, they are negligible.

They lied. Which explains WHY exactly - they refuse to explain in clear terms in these clever little "fact sheets" they hand out to the unsuspecting public, which form of mercury is actually in the bulb. Is it elemental is it inorganic, is it organic compounds? Who knows?

Well someone does know because the data is right in that paper I just cited.

Makes no sense to me how mercury containing vaccines and mercury containing fish is bad but mercury containg light bulbs are good?

But by all means - jump on the eco-green bandwagon and change out all those bulbs...and don't forget to pass on those composite fillings the next time you're at the dentist, what's wrong with a little mercuric amalgam?

Its ONLY 4mg of mercury in a bulb...​