Compact Fluorescent Lights Dumping Mercury Directly into Landfills

alex revision · January 28th, 2010

Compact Fluorescent Lights Dumping Mercury Directly into Landfills

http://www.naturalnews.com/028034_me...nt_lights.html

(NaturalNews) Compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs have become all the rage over the past several years, touted by many as the preferable "green" way to light a home, save energy, and promote environmental responsibility. While they may use less energy than traditional incandescent bulbs, CFL bulbs are filled with toxic mercury that, when disposed of, contaminates landfills and the environment.

A report released in 2008 from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection revealed that when a CFL bulb is broken, it can release dangerously high levels of mercury into the air. Mercury-vapor standards generally allow for 300 nanograms of mercury per cubic meter of air, however a broken CFL bulb can emit upwards of 50,000 nanograms per cubic meter, or more than 166 times the safe upper threshold.

In Toronto, city officials require people to dispose of CFL bulbs at special hazardous waste facilities because they don't want the city's landfills to become contaminated with mercury. While used CFL bulbs are not legally recognized as hazardous waste, they are treated as such because they pose serious environmental threats when broken and released into the environment.

Waste runoff and ground seepage from landfills can contaminate rivers, streams, lakes, reservoirs, and underground water tables. Even though landfills are generally designed to minimize this kind of contamination, the rapidly growing usage of CFL bulbs could have disastrous environmental consequences if they are not disposed of properly.

CFL bulbs also emit high levels of radiation, causing migraine headaches, sleep abnormalities, fatigue, and other health problems. Unlike traditional incandescent bulbs, CFL bulbs emit excessive "dirty energy," or electromagnetic frequencies (EMFs), a fact that has received little attention from those on the mainstream "green" bandwagon who continue to endorse CFLs as the solution to the alleged climate change crisis.

The voltage reduction technology in CFL bulbs causes high amounts of EMF pollution to be emitted. Similar to the kind released from mobile phone antennas and food irradiation machinery, EMF radiation poses serious health threats to humans who are exposed to excessive amounts of it. CFL bulbs have been found to greatly increase EMF exposure as they are often the most significant EMF polluters in homes that use them.

Light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs, on the other hand, are a much safer alternative to CFL bulbs. Those who wish to transition from traditional incandescent bulbs to something that uses less energy would do well to investigate LED alternatives. Although they are typically more expensive than the other technologies due to limited acceptance in the mainstream, they are better for the environment than CFLs and emit far less EMF pollution.

Rab4 · January 23rd, 2011

I swear I hate these so-called environmentalists! You know damn well they take bribes to decide what's safe and what isn't. Incandescants provide addtional heat in the winter months. Flourescents also have damaging effects with the pulse they generate.
We should have a thread on all the busted enviornmental myths. This one and global warming would be good starts.

MikeTodd · January 23rd, 2011

Quote:

Incandescants provide addtional heat in the winter months. Flourescents also have damaging effects with the pulse they generate.

In other words there ain't no free lunch. Something the commie/greens invariably fail to take into account.
(willfully IMO)

Anders Hoveland · September 4th, 2013

Although the CFL bulbs themselves each contain small ammounts of mercury, what is seldom discussed is where all that waste mercury from the Chinese factories ends up. Virtually all CFL bulbs consumed in the USA are manufactured in China.

100 Chinese workers suffer mercury poisoning in CFL bulb factory
Hong Kong, January 7, 2010

More than 100 workers at a Chinese lighting factory have suffered suspected mass mercury poisoning in a case highlighting the lack of safeguards for China's factory workers, state media reported on Thursday.

The workers, with the China-listed Foshan Electrical and Lighting Co., had used liquid mercury on production lines at the plant in the China's southern manufacturing hub of the Pearl River Delta, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

"All six production lines of the workshop used liquid mercury, but some workers seldom took the trouble to wear masks," Xinhua reported, quoting Lu Ruijin, a manager at the firm. Note that this information is coming from the factory management, not the workers. There's a good chance that this may not be the whole story. For example, perhaps the workers were not even issued masks because of the added expense, or perhaps wearing cumbersome masks would have interfered with the fast pace of work and lowered production output.

Following complaints by workers over ill health, 152 workers were identified in tests as having suspected mercury poisoning. Authorities pledged compensation for affected workers, Xinhua reported, though the state of their health wasn't made clear.

Over the past year, a series of heavy-metal poisoning cases has come to light across China, underscoring the vulnerabilities of workers and the severity of industrial pollution as a consequence of China's rapid economic growth.

A factory in eastern China's Jiangsu province was shut down after causing lead poisoning in more than 50 children, state media reported. Last year, more than 1,350 children in south-central Hunan province suffered lead poisoning after exposure to pollutants from a manganese smelting plant.

Hong Kong-based labour rights group, Labour Action China, said factory workers in the Pearl River Delta, which churns out a third of China's exports, remained vulnerable to chemical hazards and exploitation, including unfair dismissals and unpaid wages.

All those CFL bulbs have to be made in China, rather than the USA, because the EPA's workplace worker protection regulations are so strict it would be prohibitively expensive to take all the proper safety precautions to protect American workers.

China's toxic 'green light bulbs' - 16 Jun 09 - Hot Latest News - YouTube

One Chinese factory worker anonymously described the situation:

"Sometimes the mercury would spill all over the floor. Some of it would mix with the water on the ground. Other bits would spill away, and we were just wearing shorts and sandals."

Trying to reduce pollution by just focusing on your own country is rather stupid when you are ignoring the effects of your policies on the pollution this creates in another country.

This is not just from energy saving bulbs. Many of the environmental regulations in America and Europe that were intended to help the environment actually make things worse by just driving all the production away to China, where costs are lower because they do not have to worry about pollution or worker safety.

I wonder how much waste mercury is actually being dumped into the environment in China because of the phasing out of the incandescent bulb in the Western countries?

Quote:

A team of researchers, led by biologists at Dartmouth, has found potentially dangerous levels of mercury and arsenic in Lake Baiyangdian, the largest lake in the North China Plain and a source of both food and drinking water for the people who live around it.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0109173741.htm

Anders Hoveland · September 4th, 2013

There is another point that I feel needs to be addressed. There myth floating around that incandescent bulbs actually result in more mercury emissions because of the coal power plants it takes to power them. This is just not true.

This misleading argument arose as a response to the concerns raised over the potentially harmful mercury content inside CFL bulbs. The lighting companies pushing their more profitable CFLs did not want to alarm environmentalists, so they tried to make it seem that regular bulbs were even worse.

Only 38 percent of the United State's electricity is produced by coal. And the EPA has effectively banned new coal power plants, so your environmental arguments cannot hold as much weight anymore. And in many states/provinces, that percentage is far less. Why force a state that does not have any coal power plants to use CFL's ? In British Columbia, for example, over 86% of the power comes from hydroelectric dams. And in California, which has a population of 30 million people, only 1% of the state's power is generated by coal. So CFL's in California will only increase mercury pollution.

Greater coal power mercury problem was only ever true where untreated coal power dominated, and is not true any longer. New injection and photochemical techniques along with conventional gasification and wet scrubber use have, and will, dramatically reduce all coal power mercury emissions:
USA Government EPA: 90% reduction by 2018, (phase 1 = 21% reduction by 2010, phase 2 = 69% further reduction by 2018):
"On March 15, 2005, EPA issued the Clean Air Mercury Rule to permanently cap and reduce mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants for the first time ever. This rule makes the United States the first country in the world to regulate mercury emissions from utilities."

All about mercury and CFLs and emissions:
http://www.ceolas.net/#li19x

Not only is much of this mercury allowed to vaporize off into the air, or sometimes even dumped into the environment, but it takes more energy to make a CFL bulb than an ordinary bulb; 60% of China's energy comes from coal (more than the USA), Chinese power plants are less efficient so have to burn more coal per kilowatt generated, and China's coal is much dirtier than the grade used in the USA.

Mercury in its vapor (as found under low pressure inside a CFL) form is much more poisonous than in its liquid form, because it can be much more easily absorbed through inhalation than skin contact. Whereas some of the older members here may remember playing with mercury in your bare hands before the health hazards were fully known, boiling mercury without adequate ventilation can quickly kill you.

Although mercury is not extremely deadly itself, after release into the environment it is converted by bacteria into a much more toxic form called methylmercury. The small amount of mercury in just one CFL bulb is enough to contaminate 16,000 gallons of groundwater above levels that are considered safe.

Seems like these so-called "green" CFL bulbs are not really so good after all.

January 28th, 2010	#1
alex revision Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2008 Posts: 27,577	Compact Fluorescent Lights Dumping Mercury Directly into Landfills Compact Fluorescent Lights Dumping Mercury Directly into Landfills http://www.naturalnews.com/028034_me...nt_lights.html (NaturalNews) Compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs have become all the rage over the past several years, touted by many as the preferable "green" way to light a home, save energy, and promote environmental responsibility. While they may use less energy than traditional incandescent bulbs, CFL bulbs are filled with toxic mercury that, when disposed of, contaminates landfills and the environment. A report released in 2008 from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection revealed that when a CFL bulb is broken, it can release dangerously high levels of mercury into the air. Mercury-vapor standards generally allow for 300 nanograms of mercury per cubic meter of air, however a broken CFL bulb can emit upwards of 50,000 nanograms per cubic meter, or more than 166 times the safe upper threshold. In Toronto, city officials require people to dispose of CFL bulbs at special hazardous waste facilities because they don't want the city's landfills to become contaminated with mercury. While used CFL bulbs are not legally recognized as hazardous waste, they are treated as such because they pose serious environmental threats when broken and released into the environment. Waste runoff and ground seepage from landfills can contaminate rivers, streams, lakes, reservoirs, and underground water tables. Even though landfills are generally designed to minimize this kind of contamination, the rapidly growing usage of CFL bulbs could have disastrous environmental consequences if they are not disposed of properly. CFL bulbs also emit high levels of radiation, causing migraine headaches, sleep abnormalities, fatigue, and other health problems. Unlike traditional incandescent bulbs, CFL bulbs emit excessive "dirty energy," or electromagnetic frequencies (EMFs), a fact that has received little attention from those on the mainstream "green" bandwagon who continue to endorse CFLs as the solution to the alleged climate change crisis. The voltage reduction technology in CFL bulbs causes high amounts of EMF pollution to be emitted. Similar to the kind released from mobile phone antennas and food irradiation machinery, EMF radiation poses serious health threats to humans who are exposed to excessive amounts of it. CFL bulbs have been found to greatly increase EMF exposure as they are often the most significant EMF polluters in homes that use them. Light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs, on the other hand, are a much safer alternative to CFL bulbs. Those who wish to transition from traditional incandescent bulbs to something that uses less energy would do well to investigate LED alternatives. Although they are typically more expensive than the other technologies due to limited acceptance in the mainstream, they are better for the environment than CFLs and emit far less EMF pollution. __________________ Professor Robert FAURISSON:(January 25, 1929 — october 21, 2018) Vincent REYNOUARD : Le Blogue Sans Concession

January 23rd, 2011	#2
Rab4 Banned Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 1,692	Another myth busted! I swear I hate these so-called environmentalists! You know damn well they take bribes to decide what's safe and what isn't. Incandescants provide addtional heat in the winter months. Flourescents also have damaging effects with the pulse they generate. We should have a thread on all the busted enviornmental myths. This one and global warming would be good starts.

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September 4th, 2013	#5
Anders Hoveland Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2011 Posts: 86	There is another point that I feel needs to be addressed. There myth floating around that incandescent bulbs actually result in more mercury emissions because of the coal power plants it takes to power them. This is just not true. This misleading argument arose as a response to the concerns raised over the potentially harmful mercury content inside CFL bulbs. The lighting companies pushing their more profitable CFLs did not want to alarm environmentalists, so they tried to make it seem that regular bulbs were even worse. Only 38 percent of the United State's electricity is produced by coal. And the EPA has effectively banned new coal power plants, so your environmental arguments cannot hold as much weight anymore. And in many states/provinces, that percentage is far less. Why force a state that does not have any coal power plants to use CFL's ? In British Columbia, for example, over 86% of the power comes from hydroelectric dams. And in California, which has a population of 30 million people, only 1% of the state's power is generated by coal. So CFL's in California will only increase mercury pollution. Greater coal power mercury problem was only ever true where untreated coal power dominated, and is not true any longer. New injection and photochemical techniques along with conventional gasification and wet scrubber use have, and will, dramatically reduce all coal power mercury emissions: USA Government EPA: 90% reduction by 2018, (phase 1 = 21% reduction by 2010, phase 2 = 69% further reduction by 2018): "On March 15, 2005, EPA issued the Clean Air Mercury Rule to permanently cap and reduce mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants for the first time ever. This rule makes the United States the first country in the world to regulate mercury emissions from utilities." All about mercury and CFLs and emissions: http://www.ceolas.net/#li19x Not only is much of this mercury allowed to vaporize off into the air, or sometimes even dumped into the environment, but it takes more energy to make a CFL bulb than an ordinary bulb; 60% of China's energy comes from coal (more than the USA), Chinese power plants are less efficient so have to burn more coal per kilowatt generated, and China's coal is much dirtier than the grade used in the USA. Mercury in its vapor (as found under low pressure inside a CFL) form is much more poisonous than in its liquid form, because it can be much more easily absorbed through inhalation than skin contact. Whereas some of the older members here may remember playing with mercury in your bare hands before the health hazards were fully known, boiling mercury without adequate ventilation can quickly kill you. Although mercury is not extremely deadly itself, after release into the environment it is converted by bacteria into a much more toxic form called methylmercury. The small amount of mercury in just one CFL bulb is enough to contaminate 16,000 gallons of groundwater above levels that are considered safe. Seems like these so-called "green" CFL bulbs are not really so good after all.