Incandescent light bulbs consume too much energy. We need to conserve our resources. We need planet-friendly lighting.
But be careful with that CFL (Compact Fluorescent Light) bulb. It's a mercury bomb. If it shatters, keep your pets and children away from it, call a poison control center.
Walmart, Ikea, and other stores are no longer carrying any other kind of light bulb. All you can get are mercury bombs that can turn any breakage spot into a hazardous waste disaster.
Serious toxins in everybody's homes.
How can a difficult to recycle neurotoxin carrier be considered "green tech"?
Don't think you're safe as long you don't drop a CFL bulb.
Children and pets bump into things. Lamps fall. People fumble around as they work. BULBS BREAK.
How do you safely dispose of burnt out CFL bulbs?
What have we brought upon ourselves?
NPR warns us of CFL bulb dangers.
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The Environmental Protection Agency and some large business, including Wal-Mart, are aggressively promoting the sale of compact fluorescent light bulbs as a way to save energy and fight global warming. They want Americans to buy many millions of them over the coming years.
But the bulbs contain small amounts of mercury, a neurotoxin, and the companies and federal government haven't come up with effective ways to get Americans to recycle them.
"The problem with the bulbs is that they'll break before they get to the landfill. They'll break in containers, or they'll break in a dumpster or they'll break in the trucks. Workers may be exposed to very high levels of mercury when that happens," says John Skinner, executive director of the Solid Waste Association of North America, the trade group for the people who handle trash and recycling.
Skinner says when bulbs break near homes, they can contaminate the soil.
Mercury is a potent neurotoxin, and it's especially dangerous for children and fetuses.
....
Experts agree that it's not easy for most people to recycle these bulbs. Even cities that have curbside recycling won't take the bulbs. So people have to take them to a hazardous-waste collection day or a special facility.
The head of the Environmental Protection Agency program concedes that not enough has been done to urge people to recycle CFL bulbs and make it easier for them to do so.
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According to Canada.com, in "The CFL Mercury Nightmare", we're in trouble.
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How much money does it take to screw in a compact fluorescent light bulb?
About $4.28 for the bulb and labour -- unless you break the bulb.
Then you, like Brandy Bridges of Ellsworth, Maine, could be looking at a cost of about $2,004.28, which doesn't include the costs of frayed nerves and risks to health.
Sound crazy? Perhaps no more than the stampede to ban the incandescent light bulb in favour of compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs).
According to an April 12 article in The Ellsworth American, Bridges had the misfortune of breaking a CFL during installation in her daughter's bedroom: It dropped and shattered on the carpeted floor.
Aware that CFLs contain potentially hazardous substances, Bridges called her local Home Depot for advice. The store told her that the CFL contained mercury and that she should call the Poison Control hotline, which in turn directed her to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.
The DEP sent a specialist to Bridges' house to test for mercury contamination. The specialist found mercury levels in the bedroom in excess of six times the state's "safe" level for mercury contamination of 300 billionths of a gram per cubic meter.
The DEP specialist recommended that Bridges call an environmental cleanup firm, which reportedly gave her a "low-ball" estimate of US$2,000 to clean up the room. The room then was sealed off with plastic and Bridges began "gathering finances" to pay for the US$2,000 cleaning. Reportedly, her insurance company wouldn't cover the cleanup costs because mercury is a pollutant.
Given that the replacement of incandescent bulbs with CFLs in the average U.S. household is touted as saving as much as US$180 annually in energy costs -- and assuming that Bridges doesn't break any more CFLs -- it will take her more than 11 years to recoup the cleanup costs in the form of energy savings.
The potentially hazardous CFL is being pushed by companies such as Wal-Mart, which wants to sell 100 million CFLs at five times the cost of incandescent bulbs during 2007, and, surprisingly, environmentalists.
It's quite odd that environmentalists have embraced the CFL, which cannot now and will not in the foreseeable future be made without mercury. Given that there are about five billion light bulb sockets in North American households, we're looking at the possibility of creating billions of hazardous waste sites such as the Bridges' bedroom.
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You're going to drop a CFL bulb sometime in the future. Who has never broken a light bulb? It happens. What are we supposed to do when we have an accident? Are CFL light bulbs as good as they're promoted to be? How long do they typically last?
Is it green tech when the product saves energy...but adds to levels of toxicity?
CNN reported on the problems of CFL bulbs in the Eco Solutions article "Understanding Fluorescent Light Bulbs".
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One person asking that question is City University of Hong Kong's professor Ron Hui, chairman of the electronic engineering department, and co-author of a recent paper published in a peer-reviewed journal on the environmental impact of fluorescent lighting.
Hui has a problem with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs), specifically electronic ones. He wants them out of people's homes as much as an increasing number of governments around the world want incandescent light bulbs out of our homes. Hui wants them replaced by magnetic CFLs instead. Why?
CNN spoke recently with Professor Hui.
CNN: What is the problem with CFLs?
Professor Ron Hui: We support the idea of energy-efficient lamps but we have to tell the public about the consequences. The lifetime of electronic CFLs (eCFLs) is very limited; on average nine months and no more than one year.
Many have the misconception that energy saving equals being friendly to the environment. But to be environmentally friendly two factors must go hand in hand.
First, we must not pollute the atmosphere; and second we must not pollute the soil and the water. EFLs do save energy, but if the lifetime is, say, 10,000 hours, that's 1.1 years. And every year we throw these products in the garbage bin, so that's hundreds of millions a year.
CNN: What is the main problem with how we dispose of these CFLs?
Hui: The problem is, when you open an eCFL, you will see an electronic circuit.
On the printed circuit board we have a layer of anti-flame resistant coating made of PBDE -- this is highly toxic and in each lamp we have 3-5 milligrams of mercury.
The safe intake of mercury for a human body is a few micrograms. One milligram is 1,000 micrograms.
The problem is that eCFL is an integrated product. ... So the whole of it gets thrown away. And for the eCFL, you can't recycle it as you cannot reuse the used circuit board. And if you do recycle the tube, what about the e-waste? No one wants to talk about it.
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Here are the EPA recommendations for cleaning up CFL bulb breakage.
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Before Cleanup: Air Out the Room
- Have people and pets leave the room, and don't let anyone walk through the breakage area on their way out.
- Open a window and leave the room for 15 minutes or more.
- Shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system, if you have one.
Cleanup Steps for Hard Surfaces
- Carefully scoop up glass pieces and powder using stiff paper or cardboard and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
- Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.
- Wipe the area clean with damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes. Place towels in the glass jar or plastic bag.
- Do not use a vacuum or broom to clean up the broken bulb on hard surfaces.
Cleanup Steps for Carpeting or Rug
- Carefully pick up glass fragments and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
- Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.
- If vacuuming is needed after all visible materials are removed, vacuum the area where the bulb was broken.
- Remove the vacuum bag (or empty and wipe the canister), and put the bag or vacuum debris in a sealed plastic bag.
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Another factor, in addition to mercury hazards and recycling problems, is price. According in Inhabitat "Despite dramatic energy savings, CFLs and LED bulbs have had a hard time carving out market share, even as their quality of light has improved, simply because they cost more at the checkout counter."
Many consumers are alarmed and seeking safe, energy-saving alternatives to the CFL bulb.
Further Reading
Inhabitat "IKEA Turns the Lights Out on Incandescent Bulb Sales"
EPA "Mercury Releases and Spills"
EPA "CFL Cleanup"
NPR "CFL Bulbs Have One Hitch: Toxic Mercury"
Eco Solutions "Understanding Fluorescent Light Bulbs"
CNET "CFL Bulb With Safety Skin Keeps Mercury Inside"
Natural Health News "CFL Lights: A Risky Change"
One Earth "Lightbulbs of the Future: Hate Those CFLs?"
Wikipedia "Compact Fluorescent Lamp"
Zero Mercury Global Campaign
