Posted on 08/12/2008 3:25:32 AM PDT by Man50D
Compact fluorescent light bulbs have long been known to contain poisonous liquid mercury, but a study released earlier this year shows the level of mercury vapor released from broken bulbs skyrockets past accepted safety levels.
Following a story reported by WND last year about a Maine woman quoted $2,000 for cleaning up a broken fluorescent bulb (or CFL) in her home, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection studied the dangers of broken CFLs and the adequacy of recommended cleanup procedures.
The results were stunning: breaking a single compact fluorescent bulb on the floor can spike mercury vapor levels in a room – particularly at a child's height – to over 300 times the EPA's standard accepted safety level.
Furthermore, for days after a CFL has been broken, vacuuming or simply crawling across a carpeted floor where the bulb was broken can cause mercury vapor levels to shoot back upwards of 100 times what's considered safe.
Following the study, the Maine DEP made eight new recommendations for usage and cleanup of CFLs, including the recommendation to not even use the bulbs in carpeted rooms where children, infants, or pregnant women live. The likelihood of breakage, near impossibility of cleanup and risk of prolonged exposure, the study concluded, are just too great.
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences website acknowledges that Brown University published a similar study last month confirming the Maine results: breaking a fluorescent bulb sends mercury vapor levels to unsafe levels for the elderly, pregnant and young – and those levels remain elevated for days.
The NIEHS website states, "Today’s CFLs underscore mercury's volatile vapor form, which is still a significant health concern – ventilation reduces but does not eliminate this toxicant. Mercury vapor inhalation can cause significant neural damage in developing fetuses and children."
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
When I was a kid, we used to play with mercury from broken thermometers. In fact, in one of my science classes in school, we used to push little globules of mercury around the desk...
Soon these will be all you can buy.
I wish the misguided environuts would stop reacting and start thinking. These things are terrible for so many reasons. One being all the blind people in 20 years because of the crap quality light and also because anyone who works in an office knows how terrible flourescent lights are with headaches.
Soon LED based lighting will be the standard... with CFL disappearing quick and incandescant for specialty items only..
So did I.
There was a caller on Rush who mentioned that he and a lady were both made sick by airborne mercury from a broken box of these monsters. Not certain if this is backed by anything solid.
I’ve been waiting for LED lighting but the last I heard they had just come out with a bulb that could produce white light for the home and the cost for one bulb was north of $100.
I guess we should stockpile safer bulbs while we can.
Some people need to keep away from flourescents due to migrains.
They are not reacting - they are executing a plan.
One of my treasures when I was a kid was a bottle of mercury. Must have had an two ounces of the stuff.
I'd pour it on the floor and play with it for hours. Did so for years starting when I was about 7. Of course that was in the mid '60s, before seat belts, air bags, etc. Kids still roamed freely with BB guns and .22s.
That may explain much about why I am the way that I am....
When I was a kid there was a popcorn factory in our neighborhood that for some reason had a pipe that dripped mercury in the alley . We used to dig in the sand and put it in jars . Took it to school to play with and made many pennies look silver .
“the recommendation to not even use the bulbs in carpeted rooms where children, infants, or pregnant women live.”
So I guess children, infants and pregnant women will have to sit around in the dark.
There’s a reason they don’t make the things here, that we lost factories and business and jobs because of this. They all come from China.
When I heard congress made incandescents legal, I said to my family, well, if you want to invest in something, find some companies that our stupid government would subsidize to clean up mercury. Because now some congressperson is going to create that business, like Al Gore and his carbon credits and become a billionaire.
I am not recommending this, but a likely guerilla warfare scenario would be for someone to break the mercury bulbs in parks, and other places the enviro nuts value.
In front of animal shelters and abortion clinics, in front of the ACLU, etc. It would be classic.
Again, I would never do this, nor would I recommend it.
Send it to Congress. They think the bulbs are harmless.
Some older light switches had a lot of mercury in them.
Use to play it with in my hands... I’m still here...
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