[Greenbuilding] CFL Breakage Results Indicate UnacceptableDanger

[Jason Holstine]

Any of the chemists out there know the exposure and toxicity differences b/w
gas mercury and liquid mercury?



-----Original Message-----
From: greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org
[mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of Ted Inoue
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2008 1:51 PM
To: Jane Talkington; Greenbuilder list
Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] CFL Breakage Results Indicate
UnacceptableDanger


argh.
Yet another thing to cause fear among the population. We've become so hyper
sensitized to everything.

How many of you used mercury thermometers when you were young? Or still have
them around today? We stuck the darned things in our children's mouths and
up their butts, or had that done to us. On a regular basis, said children
would spit them out, breaking the thermometer. I know I did on at least a
couple occasions.

A typical mercury thermometer has .5-3 grams, GRAMS of mercury in them. You
want to guess how much of that became airborne when those suckers shattered?
No, I wouldn't recommend it, but you don't see millions of us running around
with "Mad Hatter's syndrome" even though we were all exposed to huge levels
of mercury at some point in our upbringing.

How much is in one of these fluorescent bulbs? About 4mg. The new low
mercury bulbs have as little as 1mg. So you could break 100-1000 bulbs to
equal one of those thermometers.

Now, I don't want to be cavalier about this, but we have to keep this in
perspective. The good that these bulbs do for the environment is far, far
greater than the harm.

Hopefully, the LED lighting will become cost effective soon. I bought one of
the cool $100 downlights, and like it. But of course, then we'll be
complaining about all the poisons in those.



On Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 11:00 AM, Jane Talkington <greenqueen at hotmail.com>
wrote:

>
> I am suspicious of CFL mercury gas. This 66-page report from the 
> Environmental Protection office of Maine details how much gas is in 
> the air at 1 ft off the ground vs 5 ft off the ground.
> breakage on carpet vs wood floor. clean up with vac vs. broom, 
> ventilation for 5 min vs 15 min.
> The devil is in the details.
>
> Staggering. Alarming. Unacceptable, in my opinion.
>
> http://maine.gov/dep/rwm/homeowner/cflreport.htm
>
> Don't just read the executive summary, open the whole report and see 
> the numbers that go off the chart! When 300 nanoparts per million is 
> acceptable and your baby's room goes to 25,000 or even up to 100,000 
> we have a problem.
>
> Jane Talkington
>
>
> PhD student in "Sustainability"
> Oklahoma State University, Environmental Science Program Stillwater, 
> OK GreenQueen at hotmail.com (405) 714-1919
>
>
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