Light bulb malfunction sends 18 to hospital with radiation burns

ajc.com/news ^ | 09/14/05 | Associated Press

[rawhide]

COLUMBIA, Tenn. — A malfunctioning light bulb in an elementary school gym exposed more than 100 people to short-wave radiation for an hour, sending 18 to the hospital with severe sunburns and swollen eyes.

The incident occurred during a 9/11 memorial service held Friday afternoon at the Baker Elementary School in Columbia. Attendees, many of whom were veterans, said that they started to feel symptoms soon after the event began.

"While I was sitting in the auditorium, my forehead started itching real bad," said Fred Young, 73. "When I got home I looked into the mirror and my face looked real red."

By Saturday morning, Maury Regional Hospital had treated nine patients suffering from unexpected sunburns and burning eyes. Dr. Michael Richardson, an emergency room doctor working Friday night, realized that they all attended the same event, but he could not immediately determine the cause of the symptoms.

Most of the patients were older adults who were sitting together under the broken lamp. No children were admitted to the hospital for exposure, according to Dr. David Turner, emergency room physician.

"The symptoms looked like problems that welders often come in with," said Turner.

After some research, Richardson decided the symptoms, similar to overexposure from a tanning bed, were produced by a radiation leak from a halide bulb. The bulbs, commonly used in gyms, are designed with a special membrane that blocks the UV rays, but occasionally these membranes can break or puncture....

[Cooter]

The people were probably burned with UV-B rays. Sunburn is caused from UV-B exposure. Tanning beds produce UV-A rays which are less likely to burn you than UV-B. There are special UV-B booths that are used to treat patients with skin conditions like psoriasis. The exposure times are typically < 1 minute per treatment in those UV-B booths.

[Mark was here]

What about my favorite bulb, the MVR400U? It is a metal - halide type of bulb.

[dljordan]

It said Halide not Halogen.

[FearlessFreep]

Well, I am obviously in over my head when it comes to lighting.

[Willie Green]

I seriously doubt that this was a "halide bulb". More likely it is a mercury vapor lamp (like a high-intensity street light). If the outer glass shell breaks on one of those, they can emit LOTS of short-wavelength UV.

Metal halide lamps are similar to mercury vapor lamps, but instead of just mercury, they also contain sodium/scandium iodide and sometimes metals in the rare earth period combined with halogens in the halogen group of the periodic table. They are preferred over mercury vapor in areas where color rendition is important as they give a purer white light then mercury vapor, which tends towards the blue end of the electromagnetic spectrum

If damaged, I would think that metal halide lamps could emit excessive UV radiation similar to the mercury vapor lamps. It looks as if they operate by the same basic priciple, just with different materials that affect electrical efficiency and the spectrum of light.

[Flightdeck]

"Can you say: "7 figure lawsuit"?"

What kind of idiot jury would give someone a million dollars for a sunburn?

[claudiustg]

I stand corrected. Here's another similar story.

http://www.mikeholt.com/mojonewsarchive/Safety-HTML/HTML/State-to-Warn-About-Halide-Light-Dangers~20050314.php

[brianl703]

Aren't those bulbs designed to fail completely if the outer glass shell breaks?

[Flightdeck]

"I'm skeptical..."

Should read: "I don't know much about thermal radiation..."

[Old Student]

"Something doens't sound right. I have been in tanning beds and you are within 6 to 8 inches of the bulbs. I would say 20+. "

Different types of lamps. Tanning beds use fluorescent lamps tuned to emit certain frequencies of UV light, along with the visible light.

Halide lamps are very powerful, and emit UV that is supposed to be filtered out. If the filter fails, they become sun lamps. In fact, a sun lamp is just one that doesn't filter as much UV.

[manwiththehands]

What kind of idiot jury would give someone a million dollars for a sunburn?

Uh, an American jury? Remember the spilled coffee at McDonalds? And a bad sunburn is a lot more serious than 2nd degree burns on your lap. :)

[Wonder Warthog]

"If damaged, I would think that metal halide lamps could emit excessive UV radiation similar to the mercury vapor lamps. It looks as if they operate by the same basic priciple, just with different materials that affect electrical efficiency and the spectrum of light."

Slippery language. Sometimes the term "halide lamp" is used with "tungsten-halogen" bulbs, which still use a hot tungsten wire to get light emission, rather than an electrical arc discharge in the presence of volatile metal vapor like "mercury vapor" and "sodium vapor".

Evidently "halide lamp" in this case refers to the type you referenced--and is a discharge-type lamp.

[Nathan Zachary]

Those aren't the same kind of bulbs.

[NRA1995]

"...the symptoms, similar to overexposure from a tanning bed, were produced by a radiation leak from a halide bulb."

Must have actually been a Halideburton bulb.....

[dljordan]

I and my wife have noticed that when we walk into some of the big box stores we start feeling kind of weird and the only thing I could figure out was that it had something to do with the lights.

[R. Scott]

Many years ago I made the mistake of setting in a poker games at a wielding shop. There was a screen between the wielding and us – but the walls were painted white. I didn't notice a thing until the next morning when I woke up feeling like sand had been poured into my eye sockets.

[rawhide]

Yes, Home Depot comes to my mind. The lights there are terrible and bad on your eyes.

[agrace]

Thoughts?

[Willie Green]

Arc-lamps generally produce more light intensity than incandescent filaments,
(I don't know if there are exceptions to this general assumption or not.)
so it should not be surprising if they're using a sophisticated refinement of arc technology in applications where the light source is located high overhead. If they used incandescents, I'd guess they'd need a lot more light fixtures to achieve the same amount of light at floor level.

[Bones75]

It seems like alot of people didn't read the article.

Here is some more info.

"A considerable number of persons were affected by ultraviolet radiation emitted from broken mercury vapour lamps at a public event at Katanning in April 1998.
Mercury vapour and metal halide lamps are used to illuminate sports stadiums, industrial, commercial and office buildings as well as roads, parking and public areas.

Mercury vapour and metal halide lamps are constructed as a two-jacketed device - an inner tube and an outer glass envelope. The inner tube contains the gas through which an electrical discharge is maintained. The discharge emits electromagnetic energy in the form of visible light, ultraviolet and infrared radiation. The inner tube is surrounded by a glass envelope, the inside of which is coated with a phosphor which emits a visible light. The outer envelope reduces shortwave ultraviolet radiation emitted from the inner tube. If the outer envelope is broken, the lamp will continue to burn emitting shortwave ultraviolet radiation of sufficient intensity to cause severe skin and eye burns. The fact that exposed persons may be unaware of damaged lamps makes these lamps particularly hazardous. "