STUDY: CFLs are bad for you. Daily Caller reports:
Scientists concluded that CFL light bulbs can be harmful to healthy skin cells.
“Our study revealed that the response of healthy skin cells to UV emitted from CFL bulbs is consistent with damage from ultraviolet radiation,” said lead researcher Miriam Rafailovich, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Stony Brook University, in New York, in a statement. “Skin cell damage was further enhanced when low dosages of TiO2 nanoparticles were introduced to the skin cells prior to exposure.”
According to Rafailovich, with or without TiO2 (a chemical found in sunblock), incandescent bulbs of the same light intensity had zero effects on healthy skin.
The scientists found that cracks in the CFL bulbs phosphor coatings yielded significant levels of UVC and UVA in all of the bulbs — purchased in different locations across two counties — they examined.
I was an early adopter of CFLs, but have since removed almost all of them from our house. Not because of reports like this one, or because of the potential for expensive cleanups after a broken one, or any of the other many problems the screwy little bulbs create.
No, I took them out because the light sucks. And also because they’re too expensive, don’t last as long as advertised, and therefore aren’t any cheaper to run.
I still keep a few installed, mostly outside. The sconces around our house have frosted covers, which masks just how damn ugly the light is. Besides, we’re trying to make it possible to see the sidewalk at night — not to put on makeup in the bathroom mirror or prepare tasty-looking food in the kitchen. It’s also nice to run the equivalent of ten 100-watt fixtures on just a fraction of the apparent wattage.
We keep two in the garage, also — but that’s out of three ceiling fixtures. I’ll explain in a moment.
CFLs broke a lot of promises.
Hmmm… If I get skin cancer, do I sue Al Gore? The EPA? Numerous Congressthings?
You’d want to sue GE and Jeff Immelt along with a few Democrat Congressmen. There is strong evidence that Immelt wrote the regulation that made incandescent bulbs illegal. Actually the bulbs aren’t banned like drugs but the regulations for lightbulb performance were written such that they didn’t qualify. It would really be a simple matter of repealing that simple regulation. However, that won’t happen as long as Democrats keep in power and Congressmen keep cutting crooked back room deals with the corporations.
And that my friends is why I’ve been hoarding the old fashioned incandescent bulbs.
What really gets me is how the Professional Environmental Poseur goes six different kinds of brain-dead when they buy these lights. Compact Florescent Lights are POISONIOUS. They contain MERCURY. And these morons think nothing of putting CFLs in their houses, including the kids’ bedrooms. For all of their so-called environmental erudition, they are stone-cold stupid. It turns out they don’t really understand the environmental crap their schools made a policy to dump into their brains since that first Earth Day, else they would have objected to the mercury content from day one.
P.S. On another note, I’ve often wondered how much my Christmas Tree helps me heat the house between December 15th and January 6th.
P.P.S. I plea that the use of the words “stupid” and “brain-dead” in the comment above is not an ad hominem attack but a clinical diagnosis.
And we took them to be clinical.
I thought he was repetitive, calling Professional Environmental Poseurs “brain-dead”.
One small detail and piece of information: Did they have a brain in the first place that suddenly died? I believe they had just one lepton that they named “brain”. In some cases they had just two neurons, and when one of them fled the other went looking for it!
Clinical – that implies intelligence.
Pagan worship depends on various gods such as being ‘Green’ so much that you are blue. We tightened up our houses to save energy, but now need to add ventilation to keep from being poisoned. Only now we are also finding that the tight house still has little leaks and are much more humid. The little leaks add moisture in the walls, with moisture comes mold, with mold comes illness and a huge bill to rebuild the house, or school, or office, or government building.
If you heat with electricity, using incandescents in heating season saves hardly any $ or energy, in summer it makes a big difference. CFL’s are OK but let the people decide. LEDs are making progress but still early in the cycle. They are making street lights with them though.
Notice the only energy conservation thing not proposed is a limit on the size of the McMansion. That 8K SF house really uses energy, in particular for a family of 2 with the hot tub and pool running. Shouldn’t we only allow 1,000 SF per person in a house with a government inspector coming out to verify the house you are building or buying is not too big for you.
/sigh/
I knew somebody was going to repeat this nonsense.
Folks, the demonization of mercury and lead is a LEFTIST end run to ban ammunition.
Mercury and lead are not a problem.
SOME mercury and lead COMPOUNDS are a problem.
But elemental mercury and lead are pretty benign.
How many people are there walking around with chunks of lead in them? Probably thousands, if not tens of thousands. Doctors don’t always remove bullets. Sometimes it’s just not worth the trouble. It’s certainly not toxic, so removing it is ALL about location – will it cause trouble because of its LOCATION.
And how many MILLIONS of us are running around with mercury in our teeth? Hundreds of millions?
There there are the many tens of thousands of us who played with mercury from broken thermometers. No problem.
Or go back to some old editions of National Geographic and look at the pictures of mercury miners floating in a pool of mercury (looks fun!), inside a cave where raw mercury literally drips from the walls, and they do a sauna at the end of each shift to sweat out the mercury from their pores. (Hey, even relatively harmless stuff can be overdone!) Health problems? Nah.
Now, be very careful with mercury SALTS or lead SALTS. That stuff is bad news.
But raw lead and mercury? No big deal.
Don’t swallow the leftist line. Stop worrying about mercury in CFLs.
I don’t like them either, but mercury isn’t why.
I have to disagree. Mercury is a problem; lead is not…. as long as it is not eaten nor winds up in the water supply. Lead is a solid. Mercury is a liquid with a vapor pressure. So, if the glass breaks, you can breathe in harmful fumes. Did the Mad Hatter drink mercury? No… he breathed it in.
It reminds me of the time I was at a small stock car track in Florida. Ususally, stock cars have added weight to them on the lefy side of the car, but are only permitted so much extra left side weight. Drivers usually use lead to make up this exctra weight…. and then cheat* by using lead balls in steal tubes distributed horizontally from left to right across the chassis, such that when the car is flat, the car does not exceed the left side weight rule, but when it is on an angle — ie when it is on th etrack — it has more left side weight than allowed. OK, so some guy decided to do the saem thing but used Hg instead, But he took a broadside hit, and the stuff spilled out of the cracked chassis tube. Race was stopped, and HAZMAT called in. I guess they felt the Hg was dangerous, no?
No, he continually breathed in and immersed his hands in solutions containing water-soluable mercury COMPOUNDS (usually salts), which are pretty dangerous materials. It’s unlikely he EVER saw any mercury.
Elemental mercury has almost NO bio-availablity.
Like that stuff that’s filling millions of mouths right now.
“…their schools made a policy to dump into their brains since that first Earth Day”
And that First Earth Day’s FOUNDER?
Convicted murderer, Ira Einhorn. Finest of left wingers from that cesspool of (democratic) incompetence and decay that is Philadelphia….. Brutally beat the lovely Holly Maddox to death with his bare hands, stuffed her corpse into a trunk and fled to France…..
Where they hailed him as a hero for “protecting” our precious planet (knowing full well of his murder of a mere expendable human) and refused to extradite him to serve his sentence (he was convicted in absentia) unless we promised to drop the any potential of the Death Penalty being issued at his sentencing hearing….because SOME (political) humans are just TOO precious…
Murder…Lies….Skin Cancer….
False Economics…yucky shadows….The crushed faces of lovely women…
Whats a few minor inconveniences like THAT, when you can feel SO good about yourself forcing everyone to do things that….well, make you feel good about yourself?
If mercury in lightbults is safe at home, why is it unsafe coming out of coal-fired plants? EPA’s new MACT rules will cause us to lose every coal plant in the country. Say hello to energy bills as big as a house payment.
“which masks just how damn ugly the light is”
this is the main turn off for me
these lights make me feel like i’m in some kind of institution
couple these crap lights along with the ridiulous low-flow toilet (which requires at least 2/3 more flushes, begins to stink quicker, and requires much more cleaning) and the ridiculous “H.E.” washers and dryers which, ironically, neither wash or dry but run twice as long as my old appliances
this is all a total scam
the only toilet I can use now is american standard champion 4 with the 4″ flush valve.
have NEVER had to flush more than one, without trying to be crude I am a….power user….
those damned low flows waste so much water it should be criminal.
You can’t even plunge a low-flow toilet. I’d have to be on a Soviet prison diet in order not to clog them.
Pretty soon, we’ll all be buying our stuff from pawn shops, which will be the only places left to buy used incandescent bulbs, standard toilets, and 30rd magazines. And they’ll cost you an arm and a leg. Such will be the tortuously long bulb/toilet/magazine lines. Long live the Dear Leader. God save the Politburo.
I’ve always been hesitant to use these bulbs since i’ve heard of the potential bio-hazard that could happen in my own home.
Didn’t realize they lost lumens over time. So that’s when I replace the always on outside front door light, the new one always seems brighter. It is.
Most CFLs are not meant for use outdoors because they do not have ballasts rated for cold weather (below 50° F). Use below that temperature will mean slow or no starting.
Of course, most of the packages do not make that clear.
The cheaper no-name CFLs seem to have the worst problem with life expectancy. A name brand CFL does seem to last a lot longer.
Even when the ballast allows for cold starting, fluorescent bulbs are an epic fail in below-zero weather.
Suppose your fluorescent bulb (compact or otherwise), say in an electric sign, is already on at sunset, when it’s already below freezing outside. It gets darker, and a severe cold front rolls in. Every degree the temp drops, the fluorescent bulb gets dimmer. When it’s well below zero F, that bulb is putting out only a feeble glow, if it’s working at all.
I had the misfortune of living in Chicago for many years. So I know.
For those of us who didn’t stock up with a lifetime supply of incandescent bulbs, what about LEDs? I know they’re very expensive, but can we expect them to last longer. Or not?
LED lights use much, much less electricity than CFL’s, or any other light source. They burn cooler than CFLs, but at the same time are sensitive to lower temperatures, so ventilation is still a requirement. They produce less light, so a bright LED consists of many small LEDs massed together, which presents a problem with heat dissipation and diminishing efficiency.
LEDs work great in low-light situations, such as sitting at a desk in a darkened room, where the ambient light does not interfere and your eyes can adjust to the LED lighting well. They are also great when you want a small light to stay on all the time without consuming much electricity (perhaps courtesy lights on a stairwell).
Bottom line, I don’t think the LED is ready just yet to replace other forms of lighting, but it definitely has advantages in the right situation.
NO! If you think CFL’s are bad, read up on LED’s. They are more insidious. Many LED’s are actually blue LED’s with a white phosphor added. Turns out that the deep blue light from blue LED’s is very harmful to your eyes. Some even come with a warning to not look directly at the light. I learned the hard way that I get an “eyeache” (literally) from using them at close range, and now use them very carefully.
Greetings:
Having spent most of my worklife in the printing industry, it somewhat amazed me that in almost all the articles about CFLs that I came across that there was no mention of the “color” of light and its effect on humans. Tungsten bulbs emit a light that is on the red end of light’s color spectrum. This is the light of the homefire and, as such, projects a feeling of warmth. Fluorescents, on the other hand, emit a light on the blue end of light’s color spectrum. It is the light of the modern, antiseptic workplace.
I belong to a species which (we believe) evolved on Earth. Earth orbits a G-2 star, which appears yellow from the surface of the planet. That makes me suspect that my vision may have evolved to slightly favor a yellow light.
From some comments I have read elsewhere (especially from those who appear to have evolved from a vegetarian ancestor), there may be members of another species present in the “human” population. If there is a correlation between the “vegetarian” and the “CFL user”, it may be because they evolved under a different (bluish) light.
I call them “Vegans”.
Actually, our eyes evolved to prefer a yellow-green light. If you’ve ever seen a firefighter wearing a chartreuse turn-out coat, that is the color our eyes are the most sensitive to, in the sense that fewer lumens of that color are needed to see clearly as opposed to any other color, including that of incandescent bulbs. Therefore, perhaps we shouldn’t mention anything like “optimal color” for fear that the environazis will demand chartreuse bulbs. If you don’t like what CFL bulbs do to the perceived color of your skin, you will positively puke seeing it under chartreuse light.
Wow. Nothing quite like nerd humor. I may steal this.
Also, autistic people have shown real sensitivity to the CFLs. I can speak to my own experience here – I walked into a room in the house we bought that was lit with a CFL bulb, and had to turn around and walk right back out. The light was wrong – that’s the only way I can describe it. It made me feel queasy and revolted immediately.
Needless to say, every CFL was changed to a standard incandescent and my garage has a corner devoted to my light bulb stash.
So I’m curious – shouldn’t there be a medical exception allowing prescription purchase of 100-watts if people like me need them? I mean, there’s a medical exception for any time I might want to abort a baby – why not for this?
Anyway, I’ve been buying 3-way incandescents when they go on sale too; they give out 100-watt light or better when placed in a standard fixture, and they’re still cheaper than CFLs.
“Also, autistic people have shown real sensitivity to the CFLs. I can speak to my own experience here – I walked into a room in the house we bought that was lit with a CFL bulb, and had to turn around and walk right back out. The light was wrong – that’s the only way I can describe it. It made me feel queasy and revolted immediately.”
I want to thank you for sharing this, sincerely. This information and what you have shared about your own experiences is helpful information I can use in my own life and situation. We just thought it was us.
Thank you again, very much.
Best wishes top you and yours.
You can still purchase incandescent bulbs here:
http://www.newcandescent.com/
Just refer to them as “heat lamps” and the Enviro-Nazis will leave you in peace…for a while.
Never really noticed the supposed slow start on CFLs, nor does the light look really cold. I’m actually working under CFLs right now. They weren’t a fancy brand or anything – maybe it’s the wiring or the lighting fixture. Though I’m not sure on the life expectancies for the bulbs – some lights seem to last forever, others burn out almost as fast as an incandescent.
What I have noticed is that I very rarely need to replace the CFLs in my workplace’s exit signs, while the T-20 incandescents burn out all the time.
Regardless, the idea of banning incandescent bulbs is pretty silly. It’s not like people aren’t using CFLs pretty commonly anyway. I’m not really excited about the idea either way, with stuff like crazy irhabi terrorists, explosive government debt, and a dying economy to keep me occupied.
On a more humorous note, I do understand that Stephen Green needs no expense to be spared for his satisfaction. I get it, you are a successful person, you earned the right to have luxurious lighting etc. Don’t let anyone distract you from talking about how awesome your life is again. Though I’m surprised you forgot to mention something about Apple as well – does the new iEdison use incandescent backlights?
Thanks for the ad hominem, but I’m spending less money on incandescents than I was on CFLs. The savings are illusory.
Or did you not read the piece?
What a crock of leftist propaganda, implying that middle-class Americans should be apologetic or embarrassed for being (relatively) economically successful.
As if the success of most middle-class Americans is a result of corruption or blind luck, and not from supporting wise economic policies like a free market, applied intelligence, and hard work.
If you want to be “successful”, too, stop waiting for the government to build your business for you.
And get some treatment to cure that evil eye, or else it will only get more infected until you completely lose the ability to appreciate anything in life.
Exit signs are one valid use for CFL’s The reasons are that first, they are on continuously. CFL lifetime shortens dramatically with on and off cycles. Second, your exit sign bulbs are likely mounted base down. CFL lifetimes also shorten – and the efficiency drops – if mounted base up. Third, the red filter makes it impossible to tell what kind of bulb is being used.
The attacks on Mr. Green are just plain dumb. So maybe he is successful. Perhaps because he worked hard and earned it? Also, the back-lighting in LED screens is not a valid comparison. The key to proper use of technologies, lighting or otherwise, is to apply them appropriately. Or perhaps you have a desire to, say for example, light your home with HID auto headlights?
I was skeptical of them, especially as I hate the florescent lights in retail stores, but the light is pretty good, just use a bright bulb than you normally would.
The biggest difference is the lack of heat. In the summer, this has been a godsend, especially this summer, because I have window mounted AC that doesn’t work very well. Today it was 108 and got to be 89 inside. With incandescents it would have been in the 90s.
Of course, that hurts in the spring/winter/fall, but at least in terms of comfort, I’ve never had a problem with my furnace not keeping me from freezing, whereas it’s questionable if my AC could keep me from getting heatstroke if it gets much hotter…only two more days, hopefully.
I used to run cfl in summer and incandescent in winter, it gets cold up here in Maine.
not really an option now sadly.
having no choices sucks.
Whether anyone likes CFLs or not, the bottom line is that it’s not the government’s place to attempt forcing us to use them. It’s a freedom issue, not a lighting issue.
Bingo.
All the rest is mere distraction.
The waiver to sell incandescants ends this November. You might want to call your rep, for one, and for two, find out Romney’s position. I’m hoping he’s a fan of American manufacturing. Not that there is an American manufacturer right now. But still…….
Just because you like them, or need them- if you are a migraineur- you need them- doesn’t mean the gov’t isn’t set to take them away.
Really. The ban is still in place.
It was a California Democrat who started the whole national shbang, in the first place. And a Texas, male, Republican who keeps trying to over-turn the lightbulb ban. For fans of game…….
and, retarded ad hominem guy. Mr Green has worked very hard for his nice lifestyle, and he shares how he did it. Oddly enough, it sounds capitalistic. He created something of value that others wanted to exchange money to partake of. That’s capitalism. Capitalism covers things as diverse as $100 hand tie-dyed organic wool diaper covers, home-made,sold out of the back of the hoopty-car rap cassettes, and now CDs with hand-drawn covers (that would be Gotye, world-wide sensash). Capitalism does not cover lobbying Congress to ban invented in America, made in America, incandescant light-bulbs to force the sales of made elsewhere CFLS. Capitalism does not cover forcing car dealer-ships to close b/c of their political donations. Capitalism does not cover Government Motors.
Mr Green ought to be using sense in his house- frugality, comparison-shopping, and sharing of information are absolutely English bourgeoisie virtues- the ones that drove England to conquer 1/4 the globe. France had statism, and couldn’t even manage to make production-quality steel, 100 years in to the Industrial Revolution. England- farmers published how they increased their crop yields, and how they bred high-quality sheep. George Washington, among others, in
Oh no! They got Ari! The b*st*rds!
snicker…hahahahahaha….
too funny.
really.
Yeah, we’ve been building our stockpile of incandescents ever since we got wind of the ban. I’ve got chronic migraine myself, and to make it worse, I’m photosensitive with most of my worst triggers. Flourescent lights don’t specifically cause them, but a specific frequency of flickering light will. Flourescent lights that are going bad can hit that frequency and all fluorescent bulbs are very, very hard on my eyes once a migraine gets going.
So, we hoard and we pray that both the ban and Obamacare get repealed because under both I can look forward to gradually losing the sanity I’ve achieved over the past decade with the help of my specialist.
I had two of the CFL bulbs “pop” and emit a burning smell. There is a browning/burning effect where the tube goes into the base. Because of the potential fire hazard, I have removed all of these from my house. I would not use them on any fixture, inside or outside.
I second the entire article. Inferior light, diminishing performance over time, chemical hazard, fire hazard, rated lifetime only achievable in controlled laboratory conditions (constant, ideal temperature; once turned on never turned off sooner than 8 hours later). Worst of all is the frightening willingness of our elected representatives to throw constitutional constraints out the window and cow-tow to an evil alliance between power-mad enviro-freaks and money-mad mega-industrialists.
Potential helpful hint: my understanding is that there is a loophole in the ban, allowing incandescents to be made for “industrial use”. So just go to the web or maybe the local Home Depot and look for “industrial” grade incandescents. Same bulbs as usual, often heavier duty, and cheap as dirt when bought in bulk.
I have had bulb lifetime problems similar to the ones you quote. Remember, there are a number of failure modes, including a ballast failure, and ballasts on CFL tubes are not replaceable. These become particularly obnoxious when you try to use these bulbs with a dimmer.
The mercury in the tube, together with Argon, Neon, Krypton, or Xenon constituting the other part of the active emission substance, must be broken down to start the tube. These gasses, including vaporized Hg, emit line spectra under thermionic excitation. The mercury must be vaporized for these puppies to work. The function of the phosphor is to convert the UV into visible light which can pass by the crown glass which composes the tube. Normally, such glass passes nothing but visible light, blocking serious UV.
Your article makes me wonder if some manufacturers may have deliberately chosen glasses which pass near UV to try to enhance the light output of their tubes, thus creating a danger. There are lines at 365 and 404 nm. Maybe I need to unlimber my trusty spectrophotometer and find out?
An issue you don’t mention is what happens when a tube breaks while in operation. The mercury vapor is then released into the local atmosphere, probably as micro-condensate which can be breathed into the lungs. Normally, unheated liquid Hg isn’t such a big deal as it can be easily cleaned up, but mercury vapor is another matter.
Having been a member of an emergency response team for 30 years, I have cleaned up dozens of liquid mercury spills. They are an ything *but* easy. If extreme care and proper technique are not used the blasted droplets break apart and scoot every which way. They get into cracks in vinyl floor tiles and won’t come out without prying up the tiles and replacing them. They disappear behind molding, under table legs, and behind anything built-in, even if the appliance is yards away from the initial spill. Just imagine dropping a tube of extra tiny BB’s and try to retrieve them all! And, of course, any mercury left about may sooner or later vaporize and contaminate the room without being noticed.
A really awful disaster will occur if a homeowner tries to vacuum up the broken glass and mercury like they would any other spill. Then the mercury will be aerosolized and spread all around the room like spray paint. We had a lab that was so contaminated it took over a year to tear it down and rebuild with new material. Everything inside had to go to the hazardous waste landfill. Don’t even *think* about asking what the cost was! I wonder if Congress will authorize a fund to rebuild a house that was sprayed with mercury from a broken bulb they required the poor homeowner to buy.
On the other hand, I just had a jolly good idea for a business cleaning up mercury spills. Too bad Obama would regulate that one out of existence immediately so as not to frighten people into avoiding his china bombs for fear of the clean-up costs.
Yes, I know that’s what you were taught.
Please do your own homework.
We managed for many, many decades without hazmat teams to clean up broken thermometers, and we all did JUST FINE.
Perhaps we did “JUST FINE” because we didn’t know any better and didn’t check to see that we got it all. You seem to be saying that elemental mercury vapor from the amount of mercury in a CFL is harmless and we shouldn’t worry about it. You may be right. For example, it is well known that organic mercury, especially methyl mercury, is much, much more toxic than elemental mercury and it is certainly inappropriate to attribute to all forms of mercury the hazards posed by the organic varieties. I, for example, am so adverse to undergoing dental procedures that I have no plans whatsoever to have my amalgam fillings replaced. Never-the-less, any small amount of homework easily turns up contrary opinions.
This is beside the point, however. My post was intended to refute the claim that cleaning up a mercury spill was “easy”. It certainly can be done properly by the average homeowner using easily obtainable supplies, like a flashlight, modeling clay and foam sponges, but it is quite tedious and not at all easy. In addition, these supplies are unlikely to be available at the time a CFL breaks, and the average homeowner knows nothing whatsoever about the proper procedures, or is even aware that they exist. The ordinary household techniques of whisk broom and dust pan, and especially household vacuum cleaners, will spread the liquid mercury, not eliminate it. Period. Whether or not this poses a significant health risk is up to the individual.
We did just fine because of basic science, and there’s no “perhaps” about it.
Elemental mercury has almost NO bio-availablity. You can play with it in your hands and not absorb any.
Trace back this whole charade about the horrible dangers of “lead” and “mercury” and you’ll find a leftist agenda behind it.
Just like the idiots yelling about “carbon! Oh HORRORS!”, they don’t know the difference between an ELEMENT and a COMPOUND.
Many lead and mercury COMPOUNDS are quite toxic.
Lead and mercury are NOT.
Sorry to hear about your frustration with mercuric adventures. Try freezing the little suckers with LN (Liquid Nitrogen) vapor, they freeze at about -38 C. LN is cheap and found in most labs, it boils at about -196 C. A wash bottle with a capillary nose can be a big help as well. Another approach is to use Cu in powdered form to trap the stuff as an amalgam. Thanks for the comment.
PS. I have had all of my mercury fillings replaced.
Thank you for your LN idea. Unfortunately, I am not convinced that a solid ball of mercury would behave significantly better than a frictionless ball bearing, and blasting one with a semi-horizontal puff of liquid/gas seems to me to be just the thing to zing it out of sight, whereupon it melts and we are no better off. That and the fact that LN destroys many types of floor tiles, and replacing them is even more tedious than our other techniques, which have proven, so far, to work well enough to avoid all of the horrors I described.
As for Cu, such sophistication is not necessary. Foam sponges work well enough, and there are commercial preparations such as MercX that are specially formulated to absorb mercury and its vapors which work even better than Cu.
I assure you that my mercury clean-up frustrations (and they are many) are due entirely to attempts by the owners of the spill (some of which had PhDs) to clean it up themselves. They always failed and this always made it much more difficult for us when we were finally called. Because of that we had a policy of cleaning up a spill at no cost to the spiller if and only if we were called and no other attempt was made to deal with it. Assuming that they didn’t make it totally impossible, my crew and I were always able to clean it up to the point that no mercury could be detected with our meters.
No doubt this study was funded by Exxon-Mobil and its subsidiaries to discredit any attempt to protect our precious Mother Earth from being poisoned from their greed.
The posioning of our precious Mother Earth will kill us all in a very short time if big oil isn’t stopped. Any inconvenience suffered as a result of having to use these light bulbs is far less important than the survival of the planet. If action is not taken now all life on Earth will extinct except for the self-contained biospheres the oil barons and their other allies on the top 1% are almost certainly building for themselves.
Welcome back, LovelyEarth.
Pretty weak science in this study, I say. I don’t like CFLs because they are crappy and, under the law, you have to call your local hazmat operations to get rid of them after they break or go bad. Plus, General Electric sells them and I hate everything about GE these days.
Hazmat team? I think you’re blowing the precautions out of proportion.
http://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/promotions/change_light/downloads/Fact_Sheet_Mercury.pdf
For the record: I’ve had a CFL (I mean the same one) at my bedside for at least 14 years now, maybe longer. Still gives perfectly adequate light. We’ve used one as our main living-room lamp (the one we leave on at night as “background light”) for a similar length of time. I use one on the porch and have had no troubles (other than a little flickering at the start) in frigid North Country winters. I inadvertently broke a CFL directly over my own head last summer and have had no ill effects from mercury or anything else. I suspect the whole hazmat thing is vastly overdone. On the other hand, my wife hates CFL light, so the lamp next to her side of the bed is an incandescent. Can’t we all just get along, people?
The primary, or sole, benefit of CFL is to postpone the building of new power plants. CFLs use less juice than the familiar incandescent light bulb. But 13. DRayRaven touches the key issue: big brother now makes all decisions for you ignorant masses (in their view). Our federal environmental dictators despise new power plants so much that truth, facts, must be withheld from you voters. Like all technologies, CLRs have characteristics. They cost more, grow dim over time, do not work well with timers, or in cold weather, and like most fluorescent lights, they can emit UV radiation. And they contain mercury.
IMHO opinion CLR mercury is as dangerous as the bogey man. The bureaucrats who pushed CLRs used it as a hammer to fight the hated coal combustion, ubiquitous since the industrial revolution. Coal has trace amounts of mercury, as does igneous rock, e.g. granite. But the anti coal faction was made to be fools by other bureaucrats who discovered black smokers, under sea volcanoes. Mercury is every where but essentially harmless until it is eaten by aquatic microbes who excrete organic methyl mercury, a neurotoxin. EPA spent decades, and fortunes, studying the possible danger in fish that we eat, due to a largely unsubstantiated fear that methyl mercury would accumulate in the food chain and make our kids stupid. Their goal, kill coal power plants. However other folks learned that there are ten of thousands of black smokers which have directly injected hot mercury into the seas for billions of years. Mother Nature emits millions of tons of mercury annually into water. That is where fish live. US coal plants emit 25 – 50 tons of mercury annually, some gets into water.
Worry about the alligator who lives under your bed; he will bite your toe at night if you stick it out of the covers. Do not worry about mercury in a CLR. Worry about the uncontrolled cost of stupid government. Worry about the unemployed thousands who once made incandescent light bulbs. Worry about becoming a slave to some bureaucrat. You are next.
Never mind the alligator, R.L., worry about the leftist telling lies about mercury! He’s far more dangerous than the alligator or the mercury!
As for WHY they hate mercury, yes, the coal mines, but also the primers for ammunition.
It used to be true. When they first came out, they were made well.
Then the price wars started, now they’re all made in China, and they are garbage.
As for UV, uh, you mean, like we get from the sun? At far lower dosages than we get from the sun? The sun that helps us make Vitamin D that is essential for health?
If you want some interesting reading, look up skin cancer rates by country, and compare them to sun exposure. You’ll find a curious LACK of correlation.
Hmmm.
I agree with RL Hails.
This post is silly, the problem is government sticking it’s nose where it doesn’t belong (in particular Federal Govt.).
In CA we get CFL’s cheap, $.99-$2.00. There is no way I would go back to halogen for my par30′s in particular. At about $1.50 at Costco when PGE kicks in it’s a no brainer, all 6 use about the same power as one halogen. And then in a kitchen I don’t have 6 bulbs heating the room!
Yes, the lifespan is grossly overrated, yes, the color of the light is not optimal. Would I prefer LED? Yes, but it will be a while before the price is right.
My custom before retirement usually had me on the same page with Pope (“be not the first by whom the new is tried, nor yet the last to lay the old aside,”) on the home front, mostly as an antidote to the ultimately wearying endless merry-go-round of constantly changing technology it fell to me to champion in the workplace; but I somehow found myself in the opposite position on this issue through sheer laziness, having received the mistaken impression from barely attended-to office scuttlebutt that they were about to become mandatory at any second several years back.
I was so ballistic at the imposition on my time of the sudden need to sift through still more meaningless details just to buy a g@dda$$ light bulb, as yet another ADL fell victim to our fascination with complexity, that all I wanted to do was get it over with. At the same time, quite fortuitously my neighborhood Aldi’s suddenly began carrying them at an extremely affordable price–I want to say they (Sylvanias) were 3 in a pack for $2.65—so I just bought a few every week until the whole house had been converted. My only concern was how they’d work with all the 3-way lamps—3-way bulbs were still in the future at that point—but since the 100 watt middle position was the only one being used anyway, it was really a non-issue.
As a Libra I hated how ugly they were, and was particularly chagrined at their incongruity inside the Waterford lamps, but quickly fell in love with the SLUF’s when I saw what they did for the electric bill. I became such a convert that I actually removed them from all the stationary fixtures in the previous place and put the incandescents back before it sold. Not one of those bulbs has burned out yet, and they’ve been in use for at least 6 years or so.
How long before this report no longer exists?
The bluish color of the majority of fluorescent lights is just plain unnatural. The same goes for “white” LED lights – too much blue. And double “the same” goes for the faddish Plasma headlights on luxury cars – the spectrum is simply wrong for human eyes; uncomfortable to look at, to view objects by, and happens to be the worst sort of light for foggy weather. The French used to REQUIRE amber headlights on cars because it is best for night-driving in bad weather; don’t know if they are still required.
I agree that some CFL’s just produce terrible lighting. Especially any of them that operate in the ‘Cool White’ color spectrum. If accurate color reproduction is what you’re looking for then the ‘Daylight’ spectrum bulbs are the best. Another interesting thing with the daylight bulb is that indoor plants actually grow pretty good under them. But my Ex-wife absolutely hated the blue-white light they give off. And I agree it’s not a warm and inviting light but a good utility light. The ‘soft white’ bulbs I think actually hold a pretty good color compared to the incandescent soft whites in my opinion. I’d say only get the CFL bulbs that compare to the 100w incandescent soft whites. The CFL’s that compare to 60w incandescent are just too dim and drab at any color temperature. I think the best place to go for CFL’s is Lowes. They have a 4-pack for $12 (at least they were that much about 5 years ago). They quickly get to full brightness and the 8 I’ve bought so far have still been working for the past 5 years. Though one of them is starting to make a buzzing noise.
I keep saying, and hoping someone’s listening:
I think there’s more to this than silly environmentalists just pushing these things because it was imagined they were good for the environment. They *definitely* were good for the companies that manufacture them. I don’t know if everyone remembers, but back in the day, it was revealed (years after the whole thing occurred) that one of the artificial sweetener manufacturers essentially bribed several guys at FDA, so that that cancer warning would be on all the opposition’s products. I’m guessing this is something similar, except these days we have decided to “get serious” about the environment. Once they convinced the environmentalists they were right, we suddenly were hearing all these factoids about how if you replaced all the light bulbs in your house with CFLs, it was the equivalent of shoving an oil rig up some Middle Eastern guys’ a–. Whatever. Point is, once they got going, they managed to convince everyone to junk light bulbs that cost relatively little (what, $.75 to $3.00) in favor of other “bulbs” that cost 3-4 times as much, and last no longer. Never mind that they’re actually dangerous, because the guy who manufactures the bulbs and sells them isn’t going to have to clean them up if one breaks–you are. So now the companies that make these things are making out like (literally) bandits, and we’re discovering that the damn things are actually dangerous.
Be interesting to know what’s in the house of the guy who owns the company that makes the damn things. Probably incandescents.
We are no longer free to even buy the light bulbs we want, or free to choose our health care.
The government are fully aware of how extremely dangerous and harmful to our health these horrible bulbs are. Many Americans have had numerous skin cancers and cannot take any more damage to their skin. It is clear that ruthless U.S. leaders are determined to damage our health.
We are very rapidly losing our rights in America. And one of the rights we are losing is the right to good health. When will we fight back for our right to be healthy? There are so many things we should be out in the streets by the millions protesting, and this is one of them.
What has happened to our great and free nation?
I am not opposed to energy efficient lighting. We own an event center and we have a range of lighting. We use CFLs in areas that are illuminated all or most of the time and are not dimmed. They are efficient and cost less to operate although their lumen rating is clearly false. They absolutely don’t work for security lighting or for any area where you want to dim lighting from time to time (ballrooms, for example). They are impossible for uplighting of foliage and are a danger in any area where you have children playing. Their rated life is also, perhaps, exaggerated by about 30-50%
CFLs are also not compatible with many types of decorative lighting and don’t work in many existing fixtures. Who wants their wedding dinner to look like it was held in an operating room?
What I am opposed to is being forced to use lighting by Big Momma Government. I am toying with sending old CFLs to congressmen who voted for this. I assume if I were to package burned out CFLs and send them to Congress I would be arrested for some kind of domestic terror. I am too old for that so I am just stocking up on what we need for our center for the next ten years. After that, screw it!
I’ve had two of these stupid things start sizzling and catch fire on me. Use at your own risk.
yes, the chant is that incandescents release 95% of energy as heat – yet that is radiated, often a bonus.
Ban proponents keep quiet about the 80% heat release of CFLs, which is internalized, to give a greater, unpredictable fire risk…
Sigh. Another ridiculous article touting a “study” that will soon prove false, no doubt. The new bulbs work fine. The light is fine, they last long, they turn on quickly enough…. It’s mostly a case of “the liberals are for it, therefore I’m against it.”
I think it’s a travesty that the government requires the use of these bulbs, but the problems with them are way overstated.
I mostly use low voltage halogens. They use little juice and give off very clean and pleasant light, plus they are easily dimmed for mood lighting. I have some LED for task lighting and they’re okay and very long lasting. I have one which has been on now for 6 years continuously – 40 watt equivalent LED night light – and still works like a champ. I use LED lights in my reading lamps and they’re fine. I have a few CFLs but not in the main part of the house. I am unsure of the actual toxicity but I’d rather not have mercury vapor all over, just to be on the safe side, you understand. Fortunately, low temperatures outside or in garages are seldom a problem here so those get CFLs or actual fluorescent long bulbs.
I have also noticed that there are “cold cathode” fluorescent tubes which contain no mercury (use xenon) supposedly, come on to full brightness almost instantly and also work in a wide temperature range. Whatever happened to them?
Stephen, hyped LEDs have brightness and lifespan issues too!
Energy saving is not the only reason to choose a bulb,
and the spectral light quality of CFLs and LEDs are very different from incandescents, in lacking several colors.
Besides, the supposed energy savings hardly hold up either, for many reasons.
The deception of light bulb switchover arguments, 13 points referenced
http://tonn.ie/p/deception-behind-banning-light-bulbs.html
Also, more about that Stony Brook study, including the previous similar EU, UK and Canada studies, spectral diagrams of CFL, LED and incandescents and UV information, and associated skin disorders
dunday com/2012/07/new-study-on-cfl-uv-radiation.html
to the guys who keep minimizing? anyone who has been in a car wreck, even a minor one, has some scarring on their brain. The blood vessels have some small scarring, and this can leak a little, which irritates the brain tissue. For most people- in cars- it’s a front to back snap- so mostly that’s emotional lability. Were you to get hit from the side- say a pedestrian hit by a car- motor functions and social decoding skills get whacked. The motor skills neurons for speech are near the motor skills sections for ones face and hands.
One mercury bulb breaking, and simply getting swept up by the spouse fairly forcefully reminded me. I can arrange my life so that there aren’t big exposures outside- I never go to garden stores, I don’t use some cleaners, stadiums with field lights are out, on bad days I take near horse- paralyzing doses of minerals- but I can’t very well control an environment where something safe, reliable and cheap- is now illegal. I can’t control my own home, courtesy of some crazy Democrat who wants to erase the Sage of Menlo’s Park greatest achievements.
Personally, it’s almost enough to have me believe the most misogynistic freak’s version of game: the guy keeping incandescant lightbulbs an issue in front of Congress is a backwoods male Republican. The shock-troops for the one fascism that really messes with me? a Democrat female from an urban district in California.
For healthy people- all sorts of things are not a big deal. For the weak, chronically ill, suffering, mitigated- all sorts of things can be big deals. I don’t tell people in wheelchairs that steps are no big deal. Please do me the courtesy of not saying incandescants are no big deal.
And, frankly, the gov’t regulating the frappe out a legal, safe product invented here- that’s even worse. Did you know, in France they used to hang people who smuggled in non- gov’t manufactured cigarettes? you know, smuggled in the not-smelling like old-moldy ropes cigarettes? Hung. It’s the plot-driver of Carmen, since Spain was like that, too. Ever been on the business end of a French cigarette? The smugglers were performing a mercy, bringing in American and Caribbean cigarettes.
Do you think brave smugglers of lightbulbs would get lionized? or imprisoned?
I have to ask, and mind you I am not a scientist, but given this information, could we not attribute the increase in migrain headaches to CFL’s? I’m just saying…but just putting some info out there some of the dollar stores are selling incandescents for a dollar. I stocked up plenty because I refuse to have the other ones in my house to only break and have to call the EPA for a clean-up. Shudder that thought!!!