Don't stock up on CFL's

For my part, I consider mercury second only to radioactive materials. Lived in the Bay Area of San Francisco. You can only eat so many fish per month before mercury gets you. All I know is, I want the mercury as FAR from me as possible. I hate CFLs because they introduce mercury to more environments, and make people more at ease with it, when, again, I would only choose mercury over radioactive materials (biohazards be damned). LEDs are great, they can be smaller, have more interesting possibilities and flexibility for lighting (don't need long tubes, can assemble arrays in any chosen pattern, seem like they could bring back a chandelier renaissance). Plus, I can whack 'em and they're ok. Anything I can smack and it's still alright is a great thing in my book. Please, no comments on the wimmins. :D
Zero
 
All this talk about mercury has me thinking about how we disposed of those 4 foot flourescent bulbs back in the 70's and up until the mid 1990's. We simply broke them down. We usually put all the bulbs back into the card board box they came in and crushed the box. Or we would simply heave them into the dumpster. In both cases the white powder from the bulbs would rise into the air and we breathed in the stuff and thought little of it.

Then there were the bulbs that broke in the unventilated storage room. Glass and powder were on the floor constantly, with the only periodic quick sweeping of the floor.

Only with mercury awareness was this practice stopped. Now they are recycling them, and handle the used bulbs as hazardous waste.

Having handled bulbs this way for almost 30 years makes me wonder how much mercury has my body absorbed, and has it lead to, or will it lead to health complications.
 
Bufford said:
All this talk about mercury has me thinking about how we disposed of those 4 foot flourescent bulbs back in the 70's and up until the mid 1990's. We simply broke them down. We usually put all the bulbs back into the card board box they came in and crushed the box. Or we would simply heave them into the dumpster. In both cases the white powder from the bulbs would rise into the air and we breathed in the stuff and thought little of it.

Then there were the bulbs that broke in the unventilated storage room. Glass and powder were on the floor constantly, with the only periodic quick sweeping of the floor.

Only with mercury awareness was this practice stopped. Now they are recycling them, and handle the used bulbs as hazardous waste.

Having handled bulbs this way for almost 30 years makes me wonder how much mercury has my body absorbed, and has it lead to, or will it lead to health complications.
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Well just read up on mercury poisoning and keep the signs and symptoms in mind if you develop any future health issues.
 
From a reliable source eMedicine:

Frequency
United States
The 2003 annual report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers' Toxic Exposure Surveillance System documented 3362 exposures to mercury or compounds containing mercury.1 Of these, 569 were in children younger than 6 years and 1705 were in persons older than 19 years. Overall, 44 individuals were reported to have moderate effects, 6 had major effects, and none died as a result of mercury exposure.

I would say, rather definitively, that quashes the idea that the "SF Bay fish mercury will 'get you'." Those numbers are for the entire U.S. population. For those who want to know The Facts, and not the "urban legend" promulgated by many unscrupulous individuals, here is the link:

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/819872-overview

Interstingly, the big "mercury offenders" are the pelagic species, and whale meat. Not surprising, given the known bioaccumulation of Hg. Furthermore, upon review of the species (approximately 33) that are known to populate SF Bay,none of them are on the list of fish associated with excess mercury!
 
I did some reading up on mercury poisoning, and while I do have health issues, none of them are similar to mercury poisoning. If mercury doesn't get me, then something else will.
 
Bufford said:
I did some reading up on mercury poisoning, and while I do have health issues, none of them are similar to mercury poisoning. If mercury doesn't get me, then something else will.
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That sums up the point fairly well. Although we should make every effort to limit our impact on the environment, we must be practical. Many of the concerns regarding environmental toxins are, IMHO overinflated, or rather hyperinflated to the point of pure absurdity. I remember as a kid, all the bulkheards and pilings in Cape May County, NJ were creosote (probably 99% of the east coast for that matter), then the NJDEP and EPA ruled that creosote was a substantial cause of petroleum contamination in the back bays and watersheds. To make a long story short, treated lumber and pressure treated pilings were mandated...guess why treated lumber doesn't rot? It's TREATED with a cocktail of heavy metals and organic toxins that would kill an elephant! Guess what? We're back to creosote!:rolleyes:
 
Maybe it's just something with my old lighting system but the CFL's don't last that long for me. I like to use them in my barn because they generate less heat than regular bulbs so less fire hazard but never really thought of anything you have to throw away as "green"
 
hollowdweller said:
Maybe it's just something with my old lighting system but the CFL's don't last that long for me. I like to use them in my barn because they generate less heat than regular bulbs so less fire hazard but never really thought of anything you have to throw away as "green"
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In my experience, CFLs last significantly longer than incadescents. As a matter of fact, between the roughly 50-60 CFLs at my apartment and my parents' house, I have yet to replace one since we've converted to using them (3 years ago for me, 2 years ago for my parents).

We use Sylvania and GE brand bulbs.
 
marcangel said:
That sums up the point fairly well. Although we should make every effort to limit our impact on the environment, we must be practical. Many of the concerns regarding environmental toxins are, IMHO overinflated, or rather hyperinflated to the point of pure absurdity. I remember as a kid, all the bulkheards and pilings in Cape May County, NJ were creosote (probably 99% of the east coast for that matter), then the NJDEP and EPA ruled that creosote was a substantial cause of petroleum contamination in the back bays and watersheds. To make a long story short, treated lumber and pressure treated pilings were mandated...guess why treated lumber doesn't rot? It's TREATED with a cocktail of heavy metals and organic toxins that would kill an elephant! Guess what? We're back to creosote!:rolleyes:
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Knowledge is not static.
 
zenheretic said:
Knowledge is not static.
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I'm well aware of that. I honestly don't understand your comment. The point of that illustration was that an appropriate risk/benefit analysis was not performed. The corallary being the "snapshot" approach to concerns regarding miniscule amounts of mercury in CFLs. True, we did have, and now again have a tiny amount of petro contamination from creosote, but its alot better than water tainted with chemicals that are leathal to marine life in the 1-2 PPM concentrations. Alot of people obviously didn't do their homework, whereas with CFLs they at least appear to have done so.
 
I believe CFL's will die off like any other unwanted technology, and LED's will take over. The initial tech on LED's have an awkward hue to them, but our new office is almost 100% LED's of a commercial type, and the are almost as good as PAR30 halogen. For me though, there is nothing better inside than halogen, if you want 50W to 100W bulbs everywhere that is.
 
gnius said:
In my experience, CFLs last significantly longer than incadescents. As a matter of fact, between the roughly 50-60 CFLs at my apartment and my parents' house, I have yet to replace one since we've converted to using them (3 years ago for me, 2 years ago for my parents).

We use Sylvania and GE brand bulbs.
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Wow that's good. I'd say I've replaced the ones in my house like 3x a year.
 
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