FLOURESCENT ENERGY SAVING LIGHT BULBS: Are they safe?

Question

The city I live in tells its residents to dispose of these lightbulbs (due to their mercury content) at special disposal sites along with paints, lead batteries and other toxic wastes. Are these really better for the environment?

Answer 1

Sure, they must be the Environmentalists say they are.

You should replace everything is your house with something that contains poison.

Answer 2

Well my failure rate is high enough it is not worth it .

Answer 3

The amount of mercury in any cfl is minimal. Mercury is a renewable resource and is recycled as required by law.

So yes they are safe and in turn save a lot of energy and last so much longer.

EDIT:

Please ignore the bonehead above me posting really moronic and ill informed answers.

What are the health effects of mercury exposure?

Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) and other fluorescent light bulbs contain small amounts of mercury. For example, an average CFL contains 5 milligrams or about 1/100th of the amount of mercury found in a mercury fever thermometer. By comparison, older thermometers contain about 500 milligrams of mercury. It would take 100 CFLs to equal that amount.

Answer 4

If disposed of properly, they are by their energy efficiency. However, the best way to conserve energy and protect the environment is to use natural sunlight and to use LEDs at night, and only when absolutely needed.

Answer 5

Look at it this way.  The mercury, and lead are already out in the environment naturally.   We have just extracted and concentrated it and used it.  Reclaiming the product at the end of its use just means it can be used again instead of extracting more from the ground.

Answer 6

yes they are safe just don't eat them

Answer 7

They are safe until they break. When a normal light bulb breaks in your home, all you have to worry about is glass. With CFLs you have to worry about mercury as well.

The mercury that is created via coal plants is disperse in the air. Meaning that unless your sucking the exhaust pipes you will never reach the amount of mercury that you can get from a CFL breaking in a closed room. We banned mercury thermometers for their content. Granted CFL hold less, but a real clumsy person dropping 3 in a day might as well commit suicide rather than to live on with brain damage.

Answer 8

Amen brother.  Accidents are accidents.  No one plans to break these bulbs.  Just heard a caller share his personal story of what happened to him AND the cashier when they handled the broken bulb in a store.  NO THANKS!

Bulbs now, what's next?

*Removing the bulbs from my sons room.  It isn't worth the risk.

Answer 9

Absolutely, fluorescent lights have been in use for more than 70 years and they have been the light source of choice whenever high efficiency lighting is needed.  The primary reason for choosing fluorescent lights is that you are going to substantially reduce the amount of energy you use lighting your house.  A second reason for using fluorescent lights is that they last for much longer than incandescent lights which reduces the amount of materials consumed in producing light and also decreases the amount of waste produced.  Your city is to be congratulated on creating a special disposal site for hazardous materials, this is probably the most environmentally thing that a municipality can do.

Answer 10

Yes because they fossil fuels we don't have to burn mean it's that much less pollution in my air and water.  

I have replaced some of my old 40-60W fixtures with as small as 7-11W flourencents.  This means I'm using one fifth to almost one tenth of the energy as before. Imagine how much coal we'd not burn if everyone could reduce their energy useage this much?

It's true there is a little mercury in them, but if recycled propery that never gets into the environment.

Answer 11

Yes, they are far better than old incandescent bulbs because of the energy efficiency.  Disposing of them via your municipal toxic waste program is just the smart and right thing to do.  The Mercury that is causing the most problems is the one being released from coal fired power plants, so the less you demand from them (i.e. using compact florescent) the less Mercury you are sending into the atmosphere.

Answer 12

If they don't break, sure.  But like everyone already knows, they contain mercury.  And I know people like to chime in like above saying "it's only a little bit" and "follow the EPA's guidelines for clean-up".  While that may be true that it is only a little bit, it only takes a little bit to make someone sick or even kill a person.  And being that people have families with children, that risk is even greater for sickness around a broken bulb for the kids.  I've also seen some of the same people say in other posts "who goes around breaking light bulbs anyway?".  Well, geniuses, it's quite obvious you don't have children, because kids will be kids and things can and do break, whether it's mom's favorite knick-knacks or a light bulb.  Not every mishap will be prevented no matter how hard one tries.  So, that being said, why should someone be forced to used a potentially dangerous light bulb in their home if they feel it isn't safe for them or their family?  No one can ever seem to give straight answer on that question since they are so good at minimizing what can be a real threat to a family's children.  And as far as disposing properly of the bulbs in your city, I agree that should be an automatic if someone buys them.  However, many cities are not equipped to handle them and the ones that are, many people aren't responsible about disposing of them (if you don't believe me go down to the poorer neighborhoods in any major city, recycling is a joke since everything is considered garbage).  So that means they end up in your local landfill, exactly where they shouldn't be.  Basically, if someone wants a CFL, they shouldn't be banned from owning it even with mercury.  They know the risks and it's their choice to do so.  But most people's beef with these things is they're going to be forced to used them when they don't want to, whether it's because the mercury in them, or that they are 10 times as expensive as a standard incandescent.  It doesn't make any sense that we allow government the decide what's better for someone's home than the actual resident.

Answer 13

Yes.

a) CFLs reduce total mercury in the environment by reducing energy use from coal power plants (who have mercury as a byproduct).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Mercu...

b) There is a very small amount of mercury in a CFL (about the size of the tip of a ball point pen).  If you break one, you just need to follow the EPA cleanup guidelines to be safe.

http://www.epa.gov/mercury/spills/index....

c) If you're really worried about their safety, you can be even more environmentally friendly and buy LEDs instead.

http://greenhome.huddler.com/products/ca...