HEATHER THOMAS: Despite their environmental benefits, there have been several recent questions about the health concerns of Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs or CFLs, due to both the mercury contained within the bulbs and the amount of 'dirty electricity' that is emitted from them.

Before resorting to mass hysteria and changing all of the light bulbs in your house back to incandescent, please stop to review all of the facts. Three important key elements to consider in your decision-making are: information, moderation and preservation.

FACTS ABOUT DIRTY ELECTRICITY:
Definition: Invisible micro-surges of dangerous radio frequency radiation and other electromagnetic contaminates that pollute electric power.

Sources: Computers, TVs, fluorescent tubes, some CFL and low-voltage halogen bulbs, electronics, radio broadcast towers, dimmer switches and ground currents running into your home electrical current through gas and water pipes and phone lines.

Health Effects: Headaches, nausea, unstable blood pressure, rashes, joint/muscle pain, vision and digestive problems to name just a few. These adverse effects seem to be specifically dangerous to those suffering from diabetes, asthma, migraines, and multiple sclerosis.

FACTS ABOUT MERCURY EMISSIONS:
~ More mercury is released into the air and water from coal-fired electrical power production than in comparison to the minuscule amount contained in CFLs. If not recycled, that would reenter the environment.
~ There are less than 4 milligrams of mercury in a single CFL bulb. (500 milligrams in older thermometers) Some CFL manufacturers have reduced the mercury content as low as 1.4 milligrams per bulb.
~ There is no mercury released from a CFL bulb when it is intact or in use.

FACTS ABOUT CFLs:
~ CFLs use 75% less energy than incandescent bulbs, last 10 times longer.
~ If every household in America replaced one incandescent bulb with a CFL, it would save enough energy to light 3 million homes and prevent the release of greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to that of about 800,000 cars.
~ CFLs require proper handling, clean-up and disposal. Like batteries, CFLs should not be thrown out in the trash.

EPA CLEANUP AND DISPOSAL GUIDELINES FOR CFLs:
1. Before Clean-up: Air Out the Room
~ Have people and pets leave the room, and don't let anyone walk through the breakage area on their way out.
~ Open a window and leave the room for 15 minutes or more.
~ Shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system, if you have one.

2. Clean-Up Steps for Hard Surfaces
~ Carefully scoop up glass fragments and powder using stiff paper or cardboard and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
~ Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass pieces and powder.
~ Wipe the area clean with damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes. Place towels in the glass jar or plastic bag.
~ Do not use a vacuum or broom to clean up the broken bulb on hard surfaces.

3. Clean-up Steps for Carpeting or Rug:
~ Carefully pick up glass fragments and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
~ Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.
~ If vacuuming is needed after all visible materials are removed, vacuum the area where the bulb was broken.
~ Remove the vacuum bag (or empty and wipe the canister), and put the bag or vacuum debris in a sealed plastic bag.

4. Clean-up Steps for Clothing, Bedding, etc:
~ If clothing or bedding materials come in direct contact with broken glass or mercury-containing powder from inside the bulb that may stick to the fabric, the clothing or bedding should be thrown away. Do not wash such clothing or bedding because mercury fragments in the clothing may contaminate the machine and/or pollute sewage.
~ You can, however, wash clothing or other materials that have been exposed to the mercury vapor from a broken CFL, such as the clothing you are wearing when you cleaned up the broken CFL, as long as that clothing has not come into direct contact with the materials from the broken bulb.
~ If shoes come into direct contact with broken glass or mercury-containing powder from the bulb, wipe them off with damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes. Place the towels or wipes in a glass jar or plastic bag for disposal.

5. Disposal of Clean-up Materials
~ Immediately place all clean-up materials outdoors in a trash container or protected area for the next normal trash pickup.
~ Wash your hands after disposing of the jars or plastic bags containing clean-up materials.
~ Check with your local, state or provincial government about disposal requirements in your specific area. Some states do not allow such trash disposal. Instead, they require that broken and unbroken mercury-containing bulbs be taken to a local recycling center.

6. Future Cleaning of Carpeting or Rug: Air Out the Room During & After Vacuuming
~ The next several times you vacuum, shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system and open a window before vacuuming.
~ Keep the central heating/air conditioning system shut off and the window open for at least 15 minutes after vacuuming is completed.

After reviewing this collection of information, decide whether changing some light bulbs is enough to impact your health and well-being. Consider that you will probably also need to stop eating fish, watching TV and driving your car. Also consider other factors such as chemicals and preservatives in food, radiation from the use of microwaves, UVA & UVB exposure from the sun, and even radiation from prolonged use of cell phones, or even hair dryers, which all have adverse effects on health.

There are options. You CAN switch to LED lights, remove dimmer switches or touch lamps, recharge laptops when you are not at home, or purchase special filters to help reduce high frequency emissions. For a complete list of ways you can reduce your exposure to 'dirty electric' visit electricalpollution.com

Once you evaluate the pros and cons, you can decide the best course of action for you and your family. It's important that you make your choices based on information and not just reaction to media hysteria. In a time when we are bombarded by twenty-four hour access to public opinion through social networks, video sharing sites and news media, it is even more critical to ask questions and become an informed decision-making leader instead of a weak-minded follower of the masses.

Sources:
dirtyelectricity.ca
electricalpollution.com
energystar.gov
snopes.com

Mar 20, 2011 - 12:11 AM

Heather -

Thank you for your detailed analysis Erik, however if you refer back to the original comment, the context was much more general than the specifics you outlined, and no reference was ever made to the specific amount of mercury in a single room.

The statement was a general reference to the overall amount of mercury that contaminates air and water from coal-fired power plants in comparison to the amount generated by CFL's.

We all need to consider the impact of our energy sources. Many pose dangers - for example: nuclear (look at what's going on in Japan) and coal-fired (as referenced above); and consider the more earth-friendly alternatives of wind or water power. But in the end, a mass panic about CFL bulbs seems like the least efficient use of our time and energy.

But thank you again for taking the time to read the article and for providing such a detailed mathematical analysis. A switch to LED bulbs sounds like a win in the short term.

Mar 18, 2011 - 4:54 PM

Erik -

Math FAIL! Let's take your claim that coal-powered plants add more mercury to a room than a broken light bulb. I Googled for a state where people are complaining about mercury emissions from coal - the first one I came up with was Wisconsin, which in 2009 emitted 2,270 lbs of mercury from its coal-burning plants. This has dropped considerably in 2010 thanks to new technology, but let's take the old numbers for the sake of argument.

Wisconsin is 65,498 square miles, multiplied by
27,878,400 sq ft per mile =
1,825,979,443,200 sq ft., divided by
2,270 lbs of mercury =
1 lb / mercury per 804,386,230.5 sq ft of area.
We need metric weights for proper comparison, so by applying the ratio
453.6 grams / lb
to that amount we get
1 gram for every 1,773,338.25 sq ft
Let's assume an average room is 150 sq ft., and that gives us
1 gram / 11,822.25 rooms
or
0.000084586 grams / room
or
0.0845486 mg / room
vs
1.4 mg / broken bulb
which gives us
=16.6 times more mercury from the bulb than from the annual power plant output.

Now, one could argue that there are several unknowns here - first of all, not all of the mercury emitted into the air would stay in the state, but some would probably come in from neighboring states as well so we'll just assume it evens out. One could also assume that much of the mercury would not wind up indoors - it's much more likely to land somewhere outside (unless your hypothetical room has no roof), but I'm too lazy to measure the reduction so let's assume a worst-case of 1:1 (which is probably off in your argument's favor by an order of magnitude but whatever). The only question left is whether or not you break less than one lightbulb per room per 16.6 years. Maybe I'm just unusually clumsy, but for me the answer is "heck yes, much more."

But then, my area is powered by nuclear energy so if it weren't for these stupid CFLs, I wouldn't have to worry much about mercury anyway...

Nov 17, 2010 - 4:16 PM

Pablo Machuca -

Lovely....I felt much informed!!!