About a year ago I was shopping at IKEA and bought a two-pack of the more expensive, energy-saving, compact fluorescent light bulbs. When I got home I popped them into two matching IKEA lamps on either side of our living room couch. Hmmm. Not impressive.
The new energy saving and the classic Edison incandescent bulbs are both technically 60 watts but the new bulbs radiate less light while 'warming up.' Needless to say I wasn't eager to buy more.
Then while researching clear glass incandescent bulbs online the other day I hit upon another downside of the new bulbs: An increased risk of mercury poisoning if they bulbs break for they release mercury vapor and powder. The Environmental Protection Agency’s clean up protocols are formidable and disconcerting: http://www.epa.gov/cfl/cflcleanup.html
Step 1-Have people & pets leave the room--then what? Get the robot in to do the following: Open a window and leave room for 15 minutes or more. Shut off the central heating or ac. Not easy to do in the north land in winter or the Gulf Coast in summer. And that’s the easy part. Five additional steps follow, none of them typical light bulb cleanup.
My only knowledge of mercury poisoning are the 1970s photos of Minamata Bay, Japan, taken by photographer activist Eugene Smith, documenting industrial mercury poisoning of the fisheries there, including catastrophic teratogenic nervous system abnormalities in children. Mercury contamination has also been linked to the uptick in Alzheimer’s disease rates.
Mercury is the most dangerous substance in the world second only to nuclear contaminants. I’m not a chemist but it appears a major source of mercury contamination are effluents from existing coal-fired power plants. So the need to reduce such contamination is a given, a formidable & as yet unrealized achievement. So why are we rushing to pile on an additional source of mercury contamination?
As a consequence of our increased demand for ‘green
light bulbs’ there’s a terrible increase in mercury poisoning of Chinese workers. China no longer allows pregnant or breast feeding women to work ‘where mercury is present.’
In China “tests on hundreds of employees have found dangerously high levels of mercury in their bodies...many requiring hospital treatment,” Sunday Times, May 3, 2009. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6211261.ece
This is NOT my idea of green, nor yours, I’m sure. A less risky approach would be an individual goal to start by reducing light bulb use by one hour per day, until we can find genuinely green methods of reducing pollution.
We have two whippets in our house, plus a three-year old. You may not realize that whippets aren’t like most dogs. If they need to get from point A to B, they take the shortest route, which may involve leaping over couches, small tables, or even badly placed lamps. A small child isn’t in the same league but you get the picture. Both animals and children can be seriously hazardous at the best of times. Our mercury bulbs have been removed and I've taken them to the recycling bin specially created at Ikea just for these bulbs, all jumbled together in a cardboard box.
A little precarious me thinks. My husband suggested we just put the bulbs in the ceiling fixtures, covered by glass. I’m not as sanguine. We aren’t always at home while other family members are.
Additional details about the new incandescent bulbs:
This law does not just affect a few light bulbs. The whole lighting industry is being overhauled. The lighting manufacturers are on board with these dramatic changes. I lived in England when the government changed the currency from the old pound, shilling & pence to the new decimal system. EVERYTHING cost at least 25% more because no one fully understood the new system-except, ironically, me.
This law does not just affect a few light bulbs. The whole lighting industry is being overhauled. The lighting manufacturers are on board with these dramatic changes. I lived in England when the government changed the currency from the old pound, shilling & pence to the new decimal system. EVERYTHING cost at least 25% more because no one fully understood the new system-except, ironically, me.
-In 2009 I bought two new strings of Christmas tree lights at Target. When I got them out in December 2010 the wire works needed a new fuse. Uh oh. I found new fuses at Target but they didn't fit my year old, now out-of-date light strings. The "old" fuses are now, alas, unavailable. I bought two more strings of bulbs. Here we go again.
-All new lampshades are designed to attach to the lamp instead of clipping onto the light-bulbs. Those type of lampshades are no longer made. If your lamp doesn't accommodate such a style it's now obsolete.
-While remodeling our bathroom two years ago I found a $10 fixture that held 4-40 watt bulbs. Recently I tried to find the same one for another bathroom but it's no longer made. A new model holds 6 light bulbs and cost $30. However the maximum wattage per bulb is only 25 watts. So to get the same amount of light (rather 10 watts less) costs $20 more for the fixture plus six bulbs instead of four. How is this saving the planet again?In the mid-1980 we repainted our whole house in Galveston, TX which was built in the 1930s. At the time, we didn’t realize we’d probably been exposed to lead paint. Lead was added to paint to increase its durability, retain freshness and speed drying. Lead was banned as an additive to paint in 1977 (1920 in France). There are continuing reports that older houses still expose children to lead paint toxins.
If you drive by a bridge that looks curiously tented while workmen repaint it, they’re shielding the environment from lead contaminants.* I know this because my brother Mark was in charge of repainting a major bridge crossing the Mississippi River, near St. Louis, at St. Charles. It arched so high over the river I was intimidated just to drive over it. He wore this very sturdy harness device to catch him if he slipped. The Mohawk Indian painters hired from New York practically danced on the iron beams, harness-less. 'Talk about hard to supervise.
The mercury light bulb boondoggle feels similar to the leaded paint calamity. Except the medical research documenting the devastating effects of lead poisoning was not widely understood. Now we know with certainty the harmful effects of mercury poisoning. But still we’re risking exposure to a now terrible--KNOWN--contaminant.
Also unlike lead paint or radioactive contaminants, how can you tell if the house you buy, or rent, or the daycare, schools, offices, or Ikea's light bulb bin, hasn’t had multiple mercury bulb breakages, improperly cleaned up? Is there a mercury counter out there, like a Geiger counter?
http://baredevelopment.com/docs/epa_limit_exceeded.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/10/061026101406.htm
Mercury trivia:
-Mercury, Roman name for Hermes, god of many trades
-Mercury: one of the nine planets
-Mercury -element- also called quicksilver; symbol Hg
*Lead is a dangerous substance. It is especially damaging to children under age six whose bodies are still developing. Lead causes nervous system damage, hearing loss, stunted growth, and delayed development. It can cause kidney damage and affects every organ system of the body. It also is dangerous to adults, and can cause reproductive problems for both men and women.
One myth related to lead-based paint is that the most common cause of poisoning was eating leaded paint chips. In fact, the most common pathway of childhood lead exposure is through ingestion of lead dust through normal hand-to-mouth contact during which children swallow lead dust dislodged from deteriorated paint or leaded dust generated during remodeling or painting. Lead dust from remodeling or deteriorated paint lands on the floor near where children play and can ingest it. What might we learn in years to come about all the ways mercury can contaminate our environment?
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