The Dangers of Fluorescent and Compact Fluorescent Lighting!

Are they really green?

 

Compact fluorescent lamps or CFL's have recently received a huge amount of attention as an energy efficient alternative to incandescent lighting. They are widely touted as using one third of the energy of an incandescent bulb, reducing greenhouse gas emissions from electricity consumption, and lasting longer than incandescent bulbs. Government agencies are pushing consumers towards these lights, in an effort to reduce energy consumption, and GHG emissions, through education and sometimes legislation. Compared to Incandescent lighting, they are generally considered to be a good solution, until you consider the risks associated with them.

There are many hazards associated with fluorescent and compact fluorescent lighting that the business owner and consumer should be aware of:

Fluorescent and compact fluorescent lighting products contain mercury. Each CFL contains about five mg of mercury, enough to make 23,000 Liters of water toxic. As effective as it is at enabling white light, however, mercury-sometimes called quicksilver-is a highly toxic element with a long history of causing death, insanity and incurable health problems. Mercury is especially harmful to the brains of both fetuses and children. When used normally there is no risk, unless a bulb breaks. When a bulb breaks, mercury escapes as vapor that can be inhaled and as a fine powder that can settle into carpet and other textiles.

If a bulb breaks, get all the people and pets out of the room for 15 minutes and let the room air out. The important thing is not to touch the heavy metal. After airing out the room, the larger pieces of the bulb should be scooped off hard surfaces with stiff paper or cardboard or picked up off carpeted surfaces with gloves to avoid contact. Use sticky tape or duct tape to pick up smaller fragments; then, on hard surfaces, wipe down the area with a damp paper towel or a wet wipe. All materials should be placed in a sealable plastic bag or, even better, in a glass jar with a metal lid.

If CFL's are to be used they need to be handled properly through their entire life cycle, including disposal. Large hardware chains offer to recycle CFL's but only a very small percentage actually get recycled, and they are not allowed in curbside recycling programs. The recycling industry estimates that in 2007 about 400 million CFL's were purchased in the USA but only 2% were recycled. That's 398 million CFL's in the trash. Irresponsibly adding billions of spent and broken CFL's to our landfills is a looming environmental problem of massive proportions. We are slowly but irreversibly poisoning our environment, our landfills and our groundwater by allowing this to happen.

 

Fluorescent lighting emits UV radiation, ballast flicker, and can cause migraine headaches, fatigue, stress and anxiety. Up to 40% of individuals exposed to this type of light can experience one or more of these symptoms.

Any mercury in a landfill is too much mercury in a landfill.

 

In commercial environments, recycling of spent fluorescent products, is encouraged and often mandated by law. However, this is not the case in the home. Most municipalities allow consumers to dispose of fluorescent products in the garbage. If our governments and municipalities are going to recommend and encourage the use of CFL's, they should responsibly set up recycling for these products, and pass laws to keep them out of our landfills. Currently most cities in North America, do not accept this type of hazardous waste. Instead of helping consumers recycle they tell us to take the bulbs to our local hardware store for recycling, or just bag it and throw it away with your household garbage. Any mercury in a landfill is too much mercury in a landfill. Just think about what happens to a landfill after it is reclaimed. Cities build communities on them for people to live. Is this what we really want?.

 

Light Emitting diodes - The greenest solution possible!

 

LED lighting is a new "green" lighting technology based on utilizing light emitting diodes to create light. They utilize less energy than compact fluorescent bulbs and contain no mercury. LED lights last up to 50,000 hours and are completely recyclable. By utilizing LED technology customers save additional energy and lower their maintenance costs. Although relatively new, LED Lighting is a cost effective alternative to compact fluorescent lighting.

* LED lights use one half to two thirds the energy of fluorescent or compact fluorescent lights

* LED lighting Led lighting contains, no mercury, so it can be recycled with ordinary recycling.

* LED lights emit high quality light

* High color rendering

* LED lights do not require ballasts

* Dimmable LED lights are available

* LED lights can last 40,000 to 50,000 hours; (5 to 20 times longer than their replacements)

* LED lighting reduces maintenance costs dramatically

 

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/12/31/bc-lightbulb-cfl-incandescent.html#ixzz1Dwo16dEH