I spilled a small amount of mercury and decided to do an EPA-style cleanup. Part of that involved renting a mercury vapor meter, so I could actually measure what happened.

Liquid mercury per se is not particularly toxic (people used to ingest significant quantities of it as medicine, and those of us old enough used to play around with it as kids).

However, if the surface area grows because it gets smeared onto the right sort of surface (cloth, for example), the evaporation is much higher and the levels in the air reach toxic amounts. I measured this myself – where a minute fraction of the mercury from a thermometer got onto a rug.

My conclusion – a little bit of mercury can result in air levels exceeding EPA and OSHA standards. This is probably not really an issue except perhaps for children or pregnant folks.

True cost and price of equal lighting CFLs. True operating cost for equal lighting. True life of CFLs.

I suspect they are not all they are cracked up to be.

If there are any professional chemists or metallurgists here, can you accept or refute this: liquid mercury is no more dangerous than any other heavy metal. I’ve had a small jar of it for many decades. At school, the chem lab had a large jar of it. It was an eerie feeling to stick your hand in it and feel the pressure. (I’ve heard that you can do the same thing with molten lead. I’ll let the teacher go first.)

It boils at 674 degF, and has an incredibly high vapor pressure, so unless you’re determined – or work with it daily, you’re not going to breathe any of it. It is not a carcinogen.

If it really were such a toxic thing, most of the country should be showing the effects – nearly everyone who had a cavity filled up until recently has mercury in their teeth (as I do).

You may remember Minimata. That was the result of a nearby chemical company dumping 27 tons of mercury compounds into the bay, over a period of 36 years (3/4 ton/year). As a result, about 3000 people from the village came down with a severe neurological disease.

But it was not Hg. Some compunds are toxic. In fluorescent bulbs, the fluorescence is a result of mercury vapor and argon gas – but when the lamp is off, it’s almost certainly cooler than 674 degF, so it’s a liquid. The amount is typically about 5 mg – about the size of a ballpoint pen tip.

I’ll use CFLs because they can lower my electric bill (if I can work out the lifetime over daily on/off cycles). But mercury is not part of the equation.

Liquid mercury is just another element. Don’t drink it. Don’t eat sodium or chlorine either – unless they’re part of a molecule of NaCl.

We should let our leaders learn a little science before they go off on wild tangents and start running around like decapitated chickens.

From wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent_lamp#Lifespan

“The life of a CFL lamp is significantly shorter if it is only turned on for a few minutes at a time: In the case of a 5-minute on/off cycle the lifespan of a CFL can be up to 85% shorter, reducing its lifespan to the level of an incandescent lamp.”

So use them, but beware.

As far as saving energy, preventing global warming, etc… well, if it makes you feel good, do it. But China is building 2 coal power plants per day, so you aren’t going to do anything other than feel good and maybe lower your cost of lighting a bit/

Having a “you can do something to help” campaign so much smells like typical American liberal solutions… feel good, feel morally superior, get a chance to “do” something, don’t trust the market and peoples’ inherent good sense, and ultimately achieve little.

What ever happened to the free market? People aren’t dumb – they’ll move to CFL’s (and very soon, LEDs which are even better) because it saves them money. Duh.

I am surprised that PJ isn’t advocating the obvious: nuclear power. Politically correct, environmentally correct bright green France gets something like 90% of its power from nukes. We haven’t built one since 3 Mile Island showed that even a core meltdown accident didn’t hurt anyone (so of course, we quit building plants… duh).

A campaign for nukes might actually help, because the free market is defeated by environmental extremists – i.e. political action is appropriate.

The reason I cannot buy into the ‘make a difference’ mantra is that those who advocate making a difference aren’t really doing anything different other than changing a regular light bulb to a dimmer light bulb.

But I understand PJ media and Instapundit like to make the moola so they’re posturing is about as reasonable as is Al Gore flying around the world in his private jet.

Speaking of Al Gore, saw a photo of his office in which he had some five computers burning energy all at the same time.

What’s that saying “Stupid is as stupid does”

Oh and if Instapundit wants to really ‘make a difference’ he get off his lazy ass and actually rake the fallen leaves in his yard himself rather than use his favorite gardening tool, the electric leaf blower.

The Southface Energy Institute in Atlanta has some good publications for DIY energy conservation projects including rigid foam insulation cover for your attic stair.

Here’s the link:
http://www.southface.org/web/resources&services/publications/large_pubs/sf_largepublication-menu.htm

Another example, people on the US East Coast who would rather die than allow offshore oil rigs along the Atlantic Seaboard or in the Gulf of Mexico off Florida, but happily buy gas made from Nigerian crude.
Google “Nigerian Pipeline Disaster” if you want to see what the pseudoenvironmentalists have chosen for themselves. Better the environmental disaster they can’t see than controllable, responsible resource recovery in their own country…