BuffettNews.com

The new florescent bulbs for the homes apparently contain a little bit of mercury. This is how to clean it up.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articl ... nts_crack/

...Continue ventilating the room for several hours.
...Wash your hands and face.
...As a precaution, consider discarding throw rugs or the area of carpet where the breakage occurred, particularly if the rug is in an area frequented by infants, small children or pregnant women. Otherwise, open windows during the next several times you vacuum the carpet to provide good ventilation.



I only have one of these bulbs in the house, I'm thinking about removing it now. Very slowly....

So let me see if I have this correct.....

Although these light bulbs are going to last several years, they are toxic when they break?

We're going to switch to these light bulbs because the will save us from global warming and they are more energy efficient, thus making the old ones obsolete.

Has anyone thought about what will happen to the envirnoment when we start throwing these new light bulbs away (because eventually we will) and the mercury gets into the soil and water??

WHAT THE HEY ????

Great, now I bet the stores will be cleaned out of the old kind of bulbs.

It would take about 100 CFL's to equal a mercury thermometer. Unless you use the bulbs as weapons, I wouldn't wear a class A hazmat suit. I'm talking about breaking one in the house, the pile of millions of bulbs is another story.


http://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/p ... ercury.pdf




Fluorescent bulbs have been around for decades and carry the same stuff.

But I agree, not enough is being done so the consumer can dispose of these properly. I'm holding off until it's settled or non mercury bulbs are produced. For now, I'll use the switches on the wall that shut off the old lights when not in use.

Ther rest of the above article:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermon ... ak/?page=1

I wonder how many office buildings attempt to dispose of the old bulbs any other way than throwing in their dumpster. Hey, what's a little poison if we are saving the environment? At least CO2 doesn't cause birth defects.

Carolinadreamin' wrote:So let me see if I have this correct.....

Although these light bulbs are going to last several years, they are toxic when they break?

We're going to switch to these light bulbs because the will save us from global warming and they are more energy efficient, thus making the old ones obsolete.

Has anyone thought about what will happen to the envirnoment when we start throwing these new light bulbs away (because eventually we will) and the mercury gets into the soil and water??

Supposedly, even with the mercury problems, the new ones contribute less mercury overall to the environment than standard bulbs. I guess the downside, though is that it comes at the price of exposing more PEOPLE to mercury.


Oh, and regarding the life span of the new bulbs... these new bulbs are supposed to have a longer life span.... BUT.... you can't just turn them on and off all the time. Treat 'em like the old style bulbs and the life span shortens dramatically.


So... leave the lights on instead of turning 'em off like you normally would. Somehow that seems to defeat the whole "save the earth" purpose...


And one more (more) thing... we all have to dispose of them properly instead of just throwing 'em in the trash. I'm sure there'll be no problem with compliance there.


Sure am glad lawmakers are outlawing the old style bulbs - seriously, by 2014 they're gone. Check this out... http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/artic ... E_ID=59298


For more info, here's a Consumer Reports link.
http://blogs.consumerreports.org/home/2 ... re_an.html

One more example of our government creating a big ol' mess.

Just got my community newsletter today and they have begun a recycling program for these new bulbs because of the mercury.

And years ago, I was taught that turning a fluorescent bulb on and off was equivalent to letting the bulb stay on for about 2 hours. I have put several in my den and am retraining myself not to turn the lights out all the time as I did with traditional bulbs.

All in the name of saving our precious little planet.

we are about 50% compact fluorescent bulbs at our house and will continue to utilize more of these.

Screw the planet if it saves my $$ in electricity cost.

12vmanRick wrote:we are about 50% compact fluorescent bulbs at our house and will continue to utilize more of these.

Screw the planet if it saves my $$ in electricity cost.

See, that's the deal. Dunno if it actually does save you $$.


To get long life out of the things, you can't turn the lights on/off much.

If you turn the lights on/off often, you save electricity, but end up buying more of those pricey bulbs.

If you leave the lights on, you get longer life from the bulb, but I'm not sure you'll save much electricity when it's all said and done.

Add in the mercury problem and it looks more and more like government interference that's causing more problems than it solves.

krusin1 wrote: government interference that's causing more problems than it solves.

IN EVERY ASPECT OF OUR LIVES

Crazy We used to play with liquid mercury when we were kids. The
bottoms of some rivers down here still have little globs of it scuttling across
the bottom left over from the commercial uses along their banks back in the
last century-and-a-half. We probably all have encapsulated mercury all over
our homes, in thermometers and light switches. So now I have to throw away
a rug and not vacuum it just because of a little mercury vapor? How about
take it outside, vacuum it and then throw away the vacuum bag? Or is the
sky really falling?

I'm in Haz-Waste and work with these every day. Just take them to your local recycling center.

Wino you know wrote:All in the name of saving our precious little planet.

You're right Garry. Earth is overrated

sonofabeach wrote:I'm in Haz-Waste and work with these every day. Just take them to your local recycling center.

Wino you know wrote:All in the name of saving our precious little planet.

You're right Garry. Earth is overrated

Certain parts of it definately are.

Wino you know wrote:All in the name of saving our precious little planet.

The planet is fine. The humans are another story. Earth will recover when we kill ourselves off within a few centuries.

I'm not so sure these bulbs last that much longer either. We've already had a few burn out and I know we didn't have them a whole year

and try to find one for a 3-way lamp...

So glad we use candles rather than light bulbs........

Since I don't live in a cave, I have 150 watt bulbs in both bathrooms, 300 Watt bulbs in my den, and 500 watts for the outside garage security light.
They'll get those things away from me about the same time they get my guns.