LED lights contain lead and arsnic.

reply to post by loam

I think it was about 6 months ago I was cleaning up the yard and found a bag of LEDs that was dated 1983. They still worked (although kinda dim compared to more modern versions).

TheRedneck

After reading this thread, I've decided to not eat LEDs.

Even if some of them contain some lead, I still think they are safer and more energy efficient than the alternatives.

LED=Light Emitting Diode isnt that a solid state electronic how can it really leak dont worry youll be ok
well you can worry if you want to who am i to say what to do have fun

Look we all have old electronics lying around.

Go and pinch an LED with pliers and just see if you can break one. You Can’t!

This is a non issue.

What about those cases how overseas people just pile tons of electronics up and set them on fire to melt everything and then sift through the goo to find base metals like gold etc.?

Will the LED structures melt as well and cause the base metals to be released?

And how dangerous is this practice? (In respect to the LEDs being burnt)?

I am aware that burning plastic is pretty toxic, but I do not know the specifics of burning LEDs.

Although I do admit after careful research these things look way safer than a lot of other alternatives.

Burning the epoxy that encapsulates them is far more toxic than the arsenic inside.

If you check the way they are made before encapsulating, you’ll find there is almost no arsenic inside. The base substrate is silicon, which is exposed to a vapor of arsenic. This is called doping.

There have been people who were poisoned from arsenic. But these were murders or attempted murder. In those cases the victims were fed spoon fulls of rat poison over a period of weeks.

The whole thing is a non issue except to those who are afraid of their own shadow.

Another day, another anti-environmental thread FAIL from FortAnthem.

"Environmentalists are hypocrites because they make potato chips that are too loud. Environmentalists are hypocrites because they make low-energy lights that have arsenic in 'em." lololol

*yawn*

Maybe if these "enviro-wackos" made LED lights that were too loud and potato chips that had arsenic in them you might have more of a point.

Till then, try getting your world view from places that don't reek of blatant manipulative right wing posturing for a change...

Originally posted by FortAnthem

“We find the low-intensity red LEDs exhibit significant cancer and noncancer potential due to the high content of arsenic and lead,” the researchers wrote in their study, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

Just how does one contract cancer from an led? Do they eat it? Do they crush it into a powder and apply it topically? Or do they just look at the led and get cancer? What?

And... What is "non-cancer" potential? AIDS? Scurvy? Chicken Pox?

If you're truly worried about LED lights then you may as well be worried about every electronic part out there.
If only you knew the chemicals used in other electronic parts that make our radios, TVs, laptops, alarm clocks and so on.
Even the most basic components can contain some pretty bad stuff inside of them but it's not like people are breaking the stuff open every day to expose themselves to the toxins.
LED bulbs on the outside are perfectly safe. Most newer LED lights are not made with the chemicals that were toxic in older bulbs.
Even at that who is going out and busting a bunch of them open with hammers?
As far as the type of lighting itself LEDs are much better for your overall health since they don't cause any electromagnetic fields like CFLs do from their ballast. LEDs consume much less energy, last longer and blah blah I can go on but you know.
Open up an old AM/FM radio from the 80s and I bet half the parts inside of it on its circuit board contain stuff inside of them that is bad for you. I bet the solder itself may even be bad if it's lead based which some older electronics used.
See my point?