This carpet belongs to someone who broke a helluvalotta bulbs.
Posted on 02/27/2008 3:17:06 AM PST by Man50D
WASHINGTON – Despite a congressional mandate banning the sale of common incandescent light bulbs by 2012, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is warning that their compact fluorescent replacements are not safe to use everywhere.
The EPA says breakage of the energy-saving, mercury-containing CFLs can cause health hazards, especially for children and pregnant women, suggesting use of the bulbs over carpeted areas should be avoided. If bulbs break over carpeted areas, the cleanup may require cutting out pieces of the carpet to avoid toxic exposures.
Mercury is needed for the lamps to produce light, and there are currently no known substitutes. Small amounts of the toxic substance is vaporized when they break, which can happen if people screw them in holding the glass instead of the base or just drop them.
Mercury is a naturally occurring metal that accumulates in the body and can harm the nervous system of a fetus or young child if ingested in sufficient quantity.
For the Maine study, researchers shattered 65 compact fluorescents to test air quality and cleanup methods. They found that, in many cases, immediately after the bulb was broken – and sometimes even after a cleanup was attempted – levels of mercury vapor exceeded federal guidelines for chronic exposure by as much as 100 times.
In a new Maine study, mercury vapor released by the bulbs exceeded even those higher levels.
The study recommended that when a compact fluorescent breaks, consumers should get children and pets out of the room and ventilate it. It warned vacuums should never be used to clean up a broken compact fluorescent lamps. Instead, it recommends using stiff paper and tape to pick up pieces.
Some states require broken compact fluorescent light bulbs to be disposed of as household hazardous waste. Others ban disposal of bulbs in trash.
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
So what?
First of all, cleaning up a broken light bulb is not "chronic exposure".
Second of all, the "federal guidelines" are absurd, concocted by leftist power-seeking regulators and based on no data.
This carpet belongs to someone who broke a helluvalotta bulbs.
The dim bulbs can be found in the House and Senate.
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This is why the media DELIBERATELY omitted telling us about the bulbs being banned.
Congress will never admit that it was wrong. It will never admit that it acted to please radical environmental socialist crazies.
And they are ALL made in China because we have no manufacturing plants here, due to the mercury involved in the process. Also, in a new finding, light from these CFLs block the body from producing anti-cancer enzymes in the immune system and should never be left on all night.
This has all the marks of the environazis putting MBTE in gasoline to fight air pollution, only to find later that it was contaminating our water supply. These people have no clue as to what the results of these things are, and our spineless legislators mandate whatever the current hair-brained idea is.
Our children are the guinea pigs in all these crazy experiments.
It also shows what our pols in Washington know about everything ! Nothing ! These blow hards think they know everything and know squat. I am so disgusted with them and when you think what these self- righteous morons are doing to our country, it is sad !
I’m a little confused by this whole thing. I disposed of some of those long fluorescent bulbs (presumably they contain mercury also?) from my garage last year and the guy at the recycling center said to just toss them in with the ordinary waste. We have been using these fluorescent bulbs for decades now with no real worry about their safety including workplace environments. Is the reason we’re hearing so much now because they’ve moved indoors with the children or because the folks who don’t want to give up on incandescents are pushing back?
I have nocturnal epilepsy, kinda rare and weird. Two therapies are to leave a talk radio station playing and a light on in the bedroom. Fluorescents have a flicker to them and they can’t be used!
I’ve had this conversation both in person and online with the enviros, they don’t want to hear how bad these bulbs are for the environment. Well, they are bad for the environment...just like their knee-jerk response to cutting down trees to make paper bags! So we went to plastic...now they want those to go away too! Idiots. Just idiots who are some of the most unsustainable people around!
LED will last longer, you can cycle an LED light on and off and it will not adversely affect it, with a CFB you actually decrease its life.
Buying into cheap goods from China reminds me of the story of Beowulf, he was seduced by beauty and fathered a monster,
We are going to pay as the sins of our past will come back to haunt us.
One day suddenly there will be no more goods from China, what would a weekly shopping trip be like when 3/4ths of the shelves at Walmart are now bare? no more vitamin C, very few childrens toys.
LEDs aren’t ready for prime time yet. I bought one for the house that runs on batteries and it gives off an unpleasant bluish light. Good for power outages but I wouldn’t want it in my house full time. I’ve been hoping they could get LEDs to market that are suitable for indoor lighting since they are true energy savers, 10% of the energy used in incandescents, but I guess I’m in for a little longer wait.
“One day suddenly there will be no more goods from China, what would a weekly shopping trip be like when 3/4ths of the shelves at Walmart are now bare? no more vitamin C, very few childrens toys.”
in other words . . . “the good old days”
When the birds stop singing comes the storm. When the shelves at Walmart are empty, comes the Chinese war.
I would love to see some of those. Lowes only carries the type I described and precious few of them.
Nice!
Not to sya I told everyone so, but I predicted this very thing sevelra months ago on this board, that after Congress passed this stupid law requiring every on to sue these bulbs, someone would come along and scream about how the government just created an even bigger environmental problem, requiring billions more to fix it.
After 2012, my burned-out CFC bulbs will hit the trash and the environment will just have to deal with it.
sue = use. Doh!
I went to stock up on regular light bulbs the other day - already the warehouse stores are starting not to stock them.
I used it tracking a deer I shot right at dusk and I hated that funny blue light it gives off. I went back to the house and got a Coleman lantern to finish tracking it.
Stock up on regular bulbs - big time!
What you got was a cheapo LED. So don't judge the technology from that one little example.
Look for prices to start coming down as more and more suppliers and mfg's come one line to fill the gap from the Edison ban.
I’ve been looking for those LEDs in natural light but haven’t seen them yet. The reason I check Lowes is that I believe they will be hitting the mass market and will be viable when I find them there. Otherwise, they’re just a curiosity item. I would tolerate a higher price for them because of the energy savings and long life but I won’t buy them just for bragging rights. Here’s hoping they hit the mass market soon and put the fluorescents out of business.
Pretty much all my flashlights are LEDs now. I tolerate the blue light in exchange for the enormously increased battery life. I hate having a flashlight battery die on me when I need it most.
I saw a flashlight for caps for hunters the other day. Small and lightweight, they attach to your cap and are good enough to light the trail. Two folks out on a coon hunt were using them and swore by them.
Hmm, hadn’t thought of that nor do I have any experience using it for that. Good point.
Try that tonight in a dark room with your LED flashlight...lol.( PS...Put the book on the floor while you read it)
now at Walmart: 4-100 watt bulbs for $1.03 !
World NUT Daily strikes again.
http://www.ccrane.com/lights/led-light-bulbs/index.aspx
http://www.besthomeledlighting.com/led_light_bulbs
http://www.environmentallights.com/categories/1003/led-light-bulbs-fixtures
http://www.led-professional.com/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,29/
Drop in replacement lamps for Mag-Lite's: AA and C/D cells.
I am a sales manager for an electrical supply house. I have seen all the latest and greatest LEDs my vendors have produced. For specific needs, like a jolting or vibrating machine, they are great. But they are not yet ready for effective in-home use.
For example, this one seems pretty bright for a single unit.
Z-Power P7 Series - World’s Highest Brightness of 900 lm at 10-watt
Or
The ones that are available are running in the neighborhood of $1 per incandescent watt equivalent. I don't see consumers spending $60 for a 60 watt equivalent lamp. Like I said, they are not viable - YET. They will be, but not today or next week, or likely even next year.
And while $60 is steep for a light bulb to be sure, there is an offset in long life ~50,000 hours+, low heat, and say 10~12 watts of energy for the equivalent of a 60 watt Edison. As production lines (existing and competitor) gear up, and more people look into them, prices will drop.
And I have seen the OStar, or Luxeon lights (at least in component form) starting to show up on more and more supply catalogs. One particular link I can't for the life of me, find right now, but it surprised me. So I imagine lighting manufacturers (not LED mfg/suppliers) are gearing up products for release.
I'm thinking of replacing all my under cabinet halogens with those. 12V and with the star aluminum backing, should fit into the hockey puck casing no problem.
But then again some of the newer linear LED under cabinet lights are looking better.
I have some CFL's, but I consider LEDs to be the lighting of the future. I'll keep watching the technology.
But I am skeptical that they will be a meaningful segment of the consumer market in the next year. People want the lighting in their homes to fill the rooms. LEDs give off light like a rifle fires a slug, whereas the old incandescents and the CFLs give off light more like a sawed off shotgun.
But don't get me wrong, I dig LEDs! They are wicked cool. They will evolve and become widely used for most every lighting application eventually.
Now, compact fluorescents, on the other hand, I am really tiring of those. They have gotten way way better than they were even 5 years ago, but I still prefer the light quality of incandescents. I wish the government would just stay the hell out of it. CFLs are the lighting equivalent of the low flow toilets that our government has forced upon us.
Almost 350,000 Ohio families had annual incomes of less than $10,000, and although they spent the least dollars on energy, their burden was more than 47% of their after-tax incomes.
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