Posted on 04/04/2011 7:53:00 AM PDT by SmithL
The nation's accelerating shift from incandescent bulbs to a new generation of energy-efficient lighting is raising an environmental concern -- the release of tons of mercury every year.
The most popular new light -- the curly cue, compact fluorescent light bulbs, or CFLs -- account for a quarter of new bulb sales and each contains up to 5 milligrams of mercury, a potent neurotoxin that's on the worst-offending list of environmental contaminants.
Demand for the bulbs is growing as federal and state mandates for energy-efficient lighting take effect, yet only about 2 percent of residential consumers and one-third of businesses recycle them, according to the Association of Lighting and Mercury Recyclers.
"If the recycling rate remains as abysmally low as it is, then there will certainly be more mercury released into the environment," said Paul Abernathy, executive director of the Napa-based recycling association. "Until the public really has some kind of convenient way to take them back, it's going to be an issue."
As a result of discarded fluorescent lights, including CFLs, U.S. landfills release into the atmosphere and in stormwater runoff upward of 4 tons of mercury annually, according to a study in the Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association.
A San Francisco hardware store owner sees the recycling dilemma firsthand.
"They're promoting them and giving them away, but there's nowhere to drop them off," said Tom Tognetti, co-owner of Fredricksen's Hardware.
(Excerpt) Read more at contracostatimes.com ...
Of course, mercury is not produced by elves in a magic tree - its part of the environment to begin with, and the amount of mercury used by man is pretty analogous to the amount of CO2 used by man.
But why get in the way of a manufactured crisis.
There is mercury in our food suply and always has been.
It is a part of the environment with or without mankind.
One single vent on any of the worlds active volcanos typically vents 2 tons per year into the atmosphere.
A crisis can be created, however, by informing the public of something they didn’t know about and prevaricating about the cause.
Gotta lay some blame on the charismatic nature of the enviro nazi hallway monitors. Nobody gets a pass!!/sarc
Another hyped up HOAX, SCAM. The amount of Mercury is minuscule. All of a sudden people are concerned about mercury in light bulbs. Where have you been concerning all the millions of fluorescent tubes discarded into the environment for the past 60 years? Why aren't we all dead already?
“An average fluorescent tube contains as much as 40mg of mercury.”
“How much mercury is contained in a CFL?
Each bulb contains an average of 5 milligrams of mercury,....”
“Sales of “fluorescent lumiline lamps” commenced in 1938 when four different sizes of tubes were put on the market....”
“...... By 1951 more light was produced in the United States by fluorescent lamps than by incandescent lamps.....”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluorescent_lamp#History
“By using less electricity, CFLs help reduce mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants, which are the largest source of human-caused mercury emissions in the United States,” said agency press officer Ernest Jones. (Related: “Clean Coal? New Technology Buries Greenhouse Emissions” [May 2, 2006].)
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/05/070518-cfls-bulbs_2.html
The devil is in the details. Jump off the anti CFL bandwagon and save money & energy while putting less mercury into the environment.
P.S. You should still be able to purchase incandescent bulbs if you want to waste money & energy and put MORE mercury into the environment.
Win-win!
I’m not concerned about the mercury, I’m concerned about the 2 that have smoked out in the last year at my house. I no longer leave one on in the basement, etc.
...........................we’re going to need a Mercury Reclamation Agency..............................
And another czar!
I think most Post Offices have a curbside mailbox for your convenience. Just return your CFL directly to the government responsible for this mess.
I hope someone feels an urge or a duty to freep the D.C. creeps on this issue.
Leni
but they meant well.. that’s all that counts.
and you wonder where the Mayans INcas and Aztecs went?
I call them Molotov corktails.
Bush’s fault.
No, really, it’s Bush’s fault. He signed that energy law banning incandescents in 2007.
PING!
And here I thought all this time mercury only came from fish.
Want to run those calcs again?
300,000,000 * 0.005 = 1,500,000 grams
1,500,000 grams = 1.5 tonnes.
Besides, 5 milligrams is high for current CFLs.
Our rulers are buffoons
Yes, they are...but at least they aren't off by three orders of magnitude! ;-)
Actually, fewer bulbs get discarded because of much longer lifespan...but that's only an additional order of magnitude, and not why your calculation is way off.
Plus, using the incandescents uses 75,000 gigawatt-hours more electricity per year. At more than 12 grams of mercury released by coal-fired plants per GWh, that's 900,000 grams (0.9 tonnes) more mercury being spewed into the environment per year just from the power usage of incandescents (four times the amount from using CFLs).
And note that it's not being contained in a leachate system--it's being spread over residential areas, etc.
And if anyone suggests those power plants keep their emissions on their own property (via emission controls), WHEW! You'll get to see who suddenly doesn't care about property rights when you suggest their cost of power might go up.
Yeah, and doubling the amount of a contaminant from the natural baseline has no effect. </sarc>
Even if we're adapted to the environmental levels, that doesn't mean doubling it has no effect. Oxygen is natural and has always been in our atmosphere, too, but if you double the concentration from about 20% to 40%, you'll notice effects on humans.
Yes.
Guess which is present in fluorescent bulbs? Mostly elemental mercury.
Guess which is more common in environmental exposure as a result of incandescents? Compounds.
Our rulers are buffoons.
Agreed.
They should be demanding stricter controls, instead of letting a power company dump its waste onto my property via air deposition. That would reduce the tragedy of the commons we face.
And I doubt any FReepers sent a single comment in during the comment period.
Hey, it takes leadership to help yourself to three orders of magnitude out of open stock!
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