Mercury risks in CFL's

[Sassy]

Consumers in dark over risks of new light bulbs - Push for energy-saving fluorescents ignores mercury disposal hazards

is this over-kill or another thing to be concerned about?  :-/

[jonsey/downunder]

I think it's a bit of a beat-up Sassy, using CFLs actually reduces hazardous waste. Lead, which is also a hazardous waste, is built into the base of incandescent lamps and requires, in most areas, their disposal or at least that of their bases as a lead-bearing hazardous waste. The relatively short lives of incandescents further exacerbates that problem since five to 10 of them are needed merely to match the lifetime of a single CFL. CFLs contain very little lead. When the situation is carefully analysed, the mercury issue actually favours CFLs over incandescents, which contain no mercury.

More than half the electricity generated in the United States is made by burning coal, which contains mercury. As the coal is burned, the mercury is vaporized and sent up the smoke stack. Mercury in vapour form is much more dangerous than when confined in a landfill. To produce the same light output as a CFL, an incandescent typically consumes three to four times as much of that coal-fired electricity, resulting in much higher overall mercury emissions than occur from use of CFLs. While electric utilities that burn coal are being pressed to control their mercury emissions, it will likely be decades, if ever, before that equation is reversed.

Considering the millions of tonnes of heavy metals & radioactive wastes that are generated from burning coal for electricity-electricity which, in part, goes into powering light globes, using CLFs sounds like a reasonable trade off to me. Especially when you are saving around $30 a year on electricity & light globes!
CFLS are probably no more dangerous that a 100 other things we have around the home. Mercury (quicksilver) was also used to recover gold and I would think you would find that your area would have suffered a fair amount of contamination.  Probably of far more danger to you than a few light bulbs
http://ca.water.usgs.gov/mercury/fs06100.html

Incidentally, Sassy here is another link to the titanium thing you posted a few weeks ago. There is a variation on existing CFL technologies in bulbs with an external nano-particle coating of titanium dioxide. Titanium dioxide is a photo catalyst, becoming ionized when exposed to UV light produced by the CFL. It is thereby capable of converting oxygen to ozone and water to hydroxyl radicals, which neutralize odours and kill bacteria, viruses, and mold spores.

[MountainDon]

Right on Jonesy. The advantages of CFL's literally overwhelm any dangers they might present. I believe the WorldznetDaily artcle to be more than slightly alarmist in nature. I have more mercury in one of my remaining dental amalgams than in all the CFL's in my entire home.

[Sassy]

That's what I thought when I read the article!  The American Dental Assoc will not even admit that mercury in fillings is dangerous but there are a few honest dentists that will talk about it.  When I read the article, I thought "brother! what over-kill" but wanted to post it because it seemed absurd to me.  

That website also supports a lot of the "far-right, evangelical" minded people who have, in my opinion, lost their way - Amanda's posting from her friend writing about the "Left Behind" series said it pretty well.  

We have the CFL lightbulbs everywhere we can put them.  

[MountainDon]

That website also supports a lot of the "far-right, evangelical" minded people who have, in my opinion, lost their way - We have the CFL lightbulbs everywhere we can put them.  

I looked at a few other articles on there as welll and noted the same as you mentioned. I have a few remaining incandescents in odd, seldom used spaces.

[Sassy]

I try to read all sides - especially since I came from that background - my core beliefs haven't changed but my outlook on world events & those driving them have.  I feel like I've got to give the other viewpoints a chance in case I'm missing something & I'd be just as blind as they seem to be...

[glenn kangiser]

Good on ya.  Jonesy.  Makes sense to me.

Can you believe the EPA shut down a small mercury mine over here because water in the area contained traces of mercury.  Crimoney -- they both come out of the ground together in that place.  My understanding is that the guy wasn't excessively polluting other than the natural occurrence.  They just wanted him out of there. :-/

I have been in the mines a bit north of there and there is visible free mercury in the cinnabar there.