Warning about mercury in CFLs

[DaveArgon]

Everyone forgets that standard fluorescent tubes have been around since 1930's, they contain WAY more mercury than a dozen CFLs. Yet if one of those break, you don't see people freaking out and calling HazMat to clean it up! Nobody thinks twice throwing THEM out. When the tube is worn out the vapour is depleted anyway!

Mercury is everywhere- a huge blob in your thermostat, in medication & vaccines, medical equipment and dental fillings.

@fiesta1117cc - YES, coal burning DOES produce mercury!

[azthundercloud]

did you ever wonder where the CFL's are made? CHINA!!!!! the bleeding heart green weenies have convinced the government to forbid manufacture of the bulbs in the US. and there are plenty of bulb manufactures!!!

[AlexB2311]

The solution--use LED light bulbs not CFL's. LED's are better and contain no mercury.

[partyongarth420]

fuck these pussies.. i put cfls in the blender and make a smoothie out of it.. mercury's in everything these days.. heres a solution.. keep the bulbs up high so u dont break them

[spotlightman1234]

oh my god that's so cool at 0:33 they have mercury on tap!!

[poikaa3]

@spotlightman1234  That is the recovered mercury from the recycled bulbs (CFLs)

[grantgalea]

Another way to poison everyone. Green my arse !!! They burn more electricity to switch them on initially too. Stock up on the old fashioned lamps before its too late folks. We are being CONNED !!!

[rocketmanpete2]

First of all everyone of the CFL's are made in China.Next you have to look at all the idiots in Washington DC and find out who is making money on this junk.Don't blame Bush blame Gore and the IPCC with there lie's on climate change or global warming.

[SepherStar]

You're all just going to have to pick your poison unless you want to sit in the dark all the time.

[PhuqueU]

The cockroaches are now trying to make the safe kind illegal

so you have to use the deadly kind, ...now drink your fluoride.

and breath your chemtrials.

[slimhitter]

who the fuck is polluting the planet

[noreaga12326]

For those of you who are against the ban of old Edison light bulbs, they're currently making energy efficient incandecent light bulbs. They will have the same warmth and color as the old traditional bulb and will be energy efficient. I think that canada will be the 1st country to have them by 2010 and hopefully will be in the US. CFLs and even LEDs give off horrible light. I hope that when these energy efficient incandencents are made, they'l ban CFLs. Bush and his staff, as usual not thinking

[taofledermaus]

"Our green guilt" I like that term. 

The companies that make these CFL's should really all be required to put a shatter proof coating on them to protect people if they break them in their homes. They are VERY fragile.

[marcopete87]

some lamps (fluorescent and HID) are made with teflon coating, they are in use into places where contamination must be avoided at all costs (food processing, for example) so, if lamp broke, there won't be shatters.

i think that demonize this technology because mercury is an very stupid action (it was demonstrated that in an life cycle, an incandescent bulb indirectly emits 3.7 more mercury than an clf bulb that was broken at the end of life)

[NoRadBlog]

CFL is not green it is poison!

[TheDisproof]

@NoRadBlog Actually fossil fuels particularly coal produce more mercury than all the world's CFl's combined!

[grsesesesesesesesese]

@TheDisproof

what is it with everyone and coal

these so called energy saving bulbs can still be useing the energy from coal

personly i would only use these bulbs as a weapon

[fiesta1117cc]

@TheDisproof No fossil fuels do not produce mercury in fact Mercury is a very expensive & extremely rare element in the Earth's crust it is only mined in very few countries Spain is the largest nation to mine it Mercury is a good conductor of electricity & emitting light The first bulbs to contain mercury were called Mercury Vapour Lamps which began lighting up the streets back in the early 1960’s those bulbs gave out a bluish white light

[KKinsane2009]

I don't know where you people get your information about mercury but in science at school way back someone broke a thermometer and we were told to immediatly leave the room, I don't know how to clean mercury from a carpet neither should I need to.

[CanberraUser]

Peter Garret has got a lot to answer for, and Kevin Fudd made a BIG mistake allowing him access to the Cabinet when Hard Labor was elected in 2007.

[Topazman12]

Quality is important. I bought the early CFL at a dollar store, the first time I used it, I smelled a burning smell and the light flicker. I turned it off and the bulb was hot. I removed it and threw it away. I bought a Made in USA CFL and it worked beautifully.

[JustMakingComments]

Get tubular skylights. They emit more light than ordinary bulbs.

[12stringsforme]

Break one and it takes graduate-level hazmat training to deal with it . . . but the labels here have no safety warnings, so 99% of buyers will never know the danger. This report is unbelievable.  First it admits the danger, then they say go ahead and use them. wtf?

[vmelkon]

Also, if you do have Hg droplets, after you collected most of the droplets, you sprinkle finely powdered sulfur (yellow) and mix around. The S will bind with the Hg forming mercury sulfide (HgS) which is a red powder. Still, there is no garantee that you cleaned up *everything*

[felistigris76]

tell me how I'm supposed to clean this up when it breaks over carpet? like, say a kid throws a toy and WHAM it breaks over my freakin carpet. You can't just wipe it up. Hmmmmm

[vmelkon]

The tube contains mercury vapor. It's not like breaking a thermometer.

[RetiredAFGuy]

ALL flourescents have a tiny drop of mercury - only difference in the CF from a standard flourescent tube is that these are miniaturized to include the starter & ballast in the base. No more of a hazard than the flourescent bulbs you've had around you for decades, actually less since these are smaller than 48" tubes & actually harder to break than the tubes by virtue of being spiraled. This urban legend BS about hazmat teams and all is likely generated by incandescant makers & power companies.

[CleanGreenLight]

The average household has 50 light bulbs, with an average life of 10 years. Each CFL bulb contains 20mg of mercury, so the mercury waste from one household is 1 gram every decade. With a toxic TLV of 25 microgrammes per cubic metre, that is potentially 40,000 cubic metres of toxic mercury vapour.

There are 30 million households in the UK alone, so that represents 30 metric tonnes of mercury released every decade, enough to pollute over 1000 cubic kilometres per decade.

[TheGeek1028]

An average CFL has about 5 mg of mercury or less. Not 20. Bullshit, 20 mg. (muttering)

[celloprof]

@TheGeek1028 Some Cfl's are A LOT BIGGER than others, some have to contain 20 mg for the bigger bulb size.

[TheGeek1028]

Your levels are wrong, that's 5 mg for CFL's of any wattage. 20 mg is the maximum legal amount for 4 foot linear fluorescent.

[SeattleChi]

Poor video regarding proper handling of bulbs if broken. "sweep" and "wipe up area with damp cloth". No! Try watching the BBC or the high school student-shot video.

[TopKatsTV]

Thanks a lot for this post!

[Ayshlyn]

Not enough people are watching this stuff. This is important and scary.

[TheGeek1028]

All this bullshit isn't true. Hazmat teams aren't required to clean it up. Take the cover off your average thermostat and look how much that has. A CFL has about 1/20,000 of that... in vapor form.

[marcopolo23iscool]

Illinois recently made thermostat that contain mercury illegal to sell or install. Maybe the rest of the country should do the same.

[TheGeek1028]

You're not getting my point.

[truthisinfectious]

and its the vapor that gets in your body....

0.742 μg/m3(thats micrograms, not milligrams) can cause illness and other medical problems.

[MrGoogfan]

@truthisinfectious

Really? I have swallowed 4grams and i'm fine. Take your incorrect facts and shove them up your ass.

[TheFrostymountains]

@MrGoogfan it's the VAPOR that kills . like when you vacuum it up !

[thoostorm4]

@TheFrostymountains yes