Compact flourescent lightbulbs

Actually they contain less mercury than the "conventional" flouresent bulb. The size of the bulb dictates the amount of mercury vapor needed and thus the amount of mercury inside. There are safety precautions for dealing with all such bulbs and they are all the same, but with the increased use of CFLs
after mercury vapor being found to be hazardous there is a greater emphasis apparant now. If you have a flouresent light in your kithen it has more mercury than a CFL. Neither are dangerous, but should be properly handled and precautions taken with broken ones.

Fires are not a concern with CFLs but can be with a standard old flouresent light fixture when the ballast overheats. The desig, of the CFL is to allow a failure of the ballast to not be such a threat.

 

http://www.epa.gov/mercury/regs.htm

The law includes special provisions for dealing with air toxics emitted from utilities, giving EPA the authority to regulate power plant mercury emissions by establishing “performance standards” or “maximum achievable control technology” (MACT), whichever the Agency deems most appropriate. On March 15, 2005, EPA issued the Clean Air Mercury Rule, which creates performance standards and establishes permanent, declining caps on mercury emissions. The Clean Air Mercury Rule marks the first time EPA has ever regulated mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants.

 

It poses a risk, but we do have some historical situations form which to draw conclusions such as the California gold rush.

http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2005/3014

Most of the mercury used in gold recovery in California was obtained from mercury deposits in the Coast Range on the west side of California's Central Valley (fig. 4). Total mercury production in California between 1850 and 1981 was more than 220,000,000 lb (pounds) (Churchill, 2000); production peaked in the late 1870s (Bradley, 1918). Although most of this mercury was exported around the Pacific Rim or transported to Nevada and other western states, about 12 percent (26,000,000 lb) was used for gold recovery in California, mostly in the Sierra Nevada and Klamath-Trinity Mountains.

 

Nice to see you posting again Wayne!

 

Mercury vapor tests would not be accurate enough to find such low concentrations for a while at least.

 

Someone tracked me down and threathened to twist my arm to get information on the subject ... :lol::lol::lol:

 

He's back!!! Really missed your Postings and the Avatar. Once I saw it this morning I was so delighted. Hope all is well and stay around for a while.

Grace

 

It looks lke there was a lot of good information already here, just a little on the historical issues and current control plans is really all I can add new for now.

 

Me 2.

Love Wayne! :grouphug:

 

All is well, and as for staying around, I will have to play that one by ear. I have added a couple of new things onto my plate that should require more and more of my time.

 

Ok, I am going to take out the trash before my head swells too much from all of this attention.

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you! :hurray::hurray::hurray:

 

Now if they can only get my typing improved to near human levels .... :jester:

 

Me 3!

Welcome back!

 

You were gone??.............................J/K! Welcome back...........:jester:

 

Thanks, I found Christmas less fulfilling this year for some reason. It must have been your Angel program, how did it go this year?

 

It seems I was, but I just remember falling asleep under that tree and "poof" time flew ....

 

:lol: :lol: :lol::cheers:

 

http://www.4042.com/4042forums/showthread.php?t=15350&highlight=christmas+angels

 

http://www.ilpi.com/safety/mercury.html

According to the MIT Department of Health and Safety's Safety Note dated October 6, 1989:


The element mercury is a liquid metal with a vapor pressure of 0.00185 mm at 25 degrees C. This corresponds to a saturation concentration in air of 20 milligrams of mercury per cubic meter of air or 2.4 ppm . The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists has established a threshold limit for mercury vapor of 0.05 milligrams of Hg per cubic meter of air for continuous 40 hour per week exposure. Long term chronic exposure to mercury vapor in excess of 0.05 mg Hg per cubic meter of air may result in cumulative poisoning. The use of mercury in laboratory amounts in well-ventilated areas is fairly safe; however, mercury can present a health hazard under the following circumstances:

When a mercury spill is not cleaned up promptly it may be ground into the floor, fracturing into extremely small particles with a large total surface area (6.4 ft for 1 ml as 10 micron spheres). From such large areas mercury may vaporize at a rate faster than the room's ventilation can safely dilute it.

<snip>

Remember, inhalation is the primary danger from mercury, especially if there is not good ventilation. In fact, some scientists believe that vapor inhalation from dental amalgams can cause Alzheimer's disease in certain genetically predisposed individuals, although the safety of dental amalgams is still a topic of hot debate. Brief, one-time exposures on the skin (from handling mercury) or even ingestion (it has been used as a laxative) are not likely to produce significant health effects in most cases, but don't test your luck. Chronic (long-term) exposure of any sort can lead to all sorts of nasty effects including permanent central nervous system damage, fatigue, weight loss, tremors, personality changes and death.