I wrote about this last year and it seems that the news media has finally caught on, at least some of them. All Fluorescent lights, compact or otherwise, contain small amounts of Mercury, which is toxic if released into the environment.

Most manufactures have agreed to reduce the amount of Mercury contained in compact fluorescent lights (CFL) to 5 mg or less per bulb. Even so, a broken CFL can release enough Mercury vapor to become toxic, especially to small children. Here are some of the symptoms of Mercury Poisoning:

1. Red Cheeks, nose and lips
2. Loss of hair, teeth and nails
3. Profuse sweating
4. Persistently faster-than-normal heart beat
5. High blood pressure
6. Memory impairment
7. Emotional liability
8. Insomnia

Clean up of broken CFL’s

1. Do NOT vacuum up broken glass! This will vaporize and distribute all the Mercury that was in the light bulb creating a much bigger problem.
2. Ventilate the room BEFORE you start cleanup. Mercury vaporizes readily at room temperature. Make sure that the room is isolated (doors closed, heating/AC system turned off) from the rest of the structure. Open all windows and leave the room, do not track through breakage area. Let it air out for at least 15 minutes or longer.
3. Use rubber or latex gloves while cleaning up!
4. Carefully sweep all the big pieces up and place in a large sealable freezer bag.
5. Use the sticky side of duct tape to clean up all the small pieces, place in freezer bag.
6. Wipe the area down with a damp paper towel, place used paper towels in freezer bag
7. Remove rubber gloves and place in freezer bag. Seal up the bag and bring it to a recycling or hazardous waist disposal facility.
8. Wash your hands and arms throughly!

Disposal of burned out CFL’s

1. Never throw burned out CFL’s in ordinary waste. This is a sure way to contaminate the environment and in many areas it is against the law.
2. Collect burned out CFL’s and take them to a recycling facility or hazardous waste disposal facility.
3. For a disposal center near you, check the US EPA web site on Mercury-Containing Light Bulb Recycling.

Generally, I write on the base of the burned out CFL “BAD” and put it in a small box. Once a year our town has a clean up day when they accept hazardous waste free of charge. I take the box in and get rid of them on that day. They last so long, usually I only have one or two burned out bulbs per year.

In New York State, improper disposal of mercury lamps is AGAINST THE LAW. Violators will be subject to civil and criminal penalties and may be held liable for contaminated waste sites. Also, employees may be exposed to unsafe mercury levels from mismanaged waste lamps. See the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation web site for more information.

Mercury from CFL’s Vs. Mercury from Coal Fired power plants

With all the scary stuff about Mercury noted above, perhaps a valid question would be – Why use CFL’s at all? In general, CFL’s use much less electricity than their incandescent equivalents. They also last several times longer. However, does that mitigate their environmental impact?

It is estimated that coal fired power plants in the US release about 48 tons of Mercury into the atmosphere every year. That is a lot and it needs to be drastically reduced. By comparison, a CFL contains about 5 mg of Mercury. It is estimated that 150 million CFL’s were sold in the US in 2007. Thus the amount of Mercury sold in CFL’s is 5 mg x 150,000,000 or 750,000,000 mg of Mercury. Sounds like a lot. Roughly 2 percent of all CFL’s are recycled, which means that 712,500,000 mg of Mercury were improperly disposed. Converted to tons it equals 0.785 tons of Mercury.

The argument is that by using CFL’s we will reduce the amount of coal used to generate electricity, and thus reduce the Mercury emissions from coal fired power plants. I have yet to see a study that supports this position. In fact, in spite of wide spread use of CFL’s the electrical demand in this country continues to grow, prompting more coal fired power plants to be built. Further more, most power companies use coal fired plants as their base line generation facilities, meaning they run all the time. They do this because coal is cheaper. They use natural gas and oil fired facilities for peak demand periods because it is easier to switch those plants on and off line.

I would say that the 2 percent recycling rate for CFL’s is a dismal failure and shows that most people are not concerned about the environment or their impact at all. Perhaps the Pope was right in revising the seven deadly sins to include environmental pollution. By the way, are those new sins in addition to the original seven deadly sins? Does that mean there are now fourteen deadly sins? I am a little confused on this issue. Anyway…

The jury is still out on the CFL issue. Do they save electricity? Yes. Do they reduce the overall all electrical load, thus reduce pollution, or do they increase pollution due to improper disposal? Maybe yes, maybe no. What is clear is if we are going to use Mercury bearing CFL’s,  better education is needed.

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