New Dangers From CFL Bulbs Even If Unbroken and Working Properly. (Please check for your own safety.

Is there anyone thats actually being forced to buy these bulbs because of a lack of the old ones?
The old ones are still at every store that ive been in.

Unreal. Sounds simple. Snicker. I am curious as to the effect on produce grown under CFL'S, as I have been supporting my herb(rosemary/parsley etc.) and greens (lettuce/kale etc.) winter garden with these lights.

Originally posted by fakedirt
CFLs can be smart choices. Just be careful.

1. Isolate the site.
Get everyone out of the area. Open windows, leave the room, and close the door behind you. Turn off the heating or cooling system. Children and pregnant or nursing mothers should not return until cleanup is complete.

2. Air out the room for 5 to 15 minutes.
Give mercury vapor time to disperse and settle into tiny dust-like beads. Don't wait longer: mercury spreads easily.

3. Don safety gear.
Wear rubber gloves, safety (or other) glasses, work clothes and a dust mask or face covering when cleaning up the broken bulb.

4. Put large bulb pieces and other waste in a large glass jar with a screw-on metal lid, such as a Mason jar.
Scoop up glass fragments and dust with stiff paper or cardboard and deposit in the jar. Pat the area with sticky tape to collect tiny splinters and dust, then wipe with a damp cloth, baby wipe or moist paper towels. (Second choice: a plastic jar with a screw-on lid.)

5. Seal up the waste.
Put paper, cardboard, tape and wipes in the jar and close the lid. Throw away any contaminated fabrics, like clothing or bedding, that have come into direct contact with bulb fragments.

6. If a bulb breaks on a rug or carpeting:
Fabrics are harder to clean than hard surfaces; removing all mercury may be impossible. Hang a CFL-contaminated rug outside. Experts disagree on whether to vacuum carpeting. EPA recommends doing so and cleaning the vacuum afterward. Scientists with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection disagree: after testing various CLF cleanup scenarios [link], they concluded that vacuuming can spread mercury vapor and permanently contaminate the vacuum.

Keep infants, children and women of childbearing age away from the carpeting for several weeks.

7. Wash up.
The clothes you wore to clean up the breakage can be washed unless they made direct contact with the broken bulb or dust. Wipe your shoes with wet wipes or a moist paper towel, then add the wipes to the waste jar.

Wash your hands and face.

8. Follow your state's disposal rules.
Use EPA's website to find the nearest location for disposal of household hazardous waste www.epa.gov/bulbrecycling If no facilities exist it may be legal to send well-packaged waste to your local landfill.

www.epa.gov...

9. Ventilate the room for several more hours.
Next time you clean the area:

Turn off heating or cooling systems, close the room's doors and open the windows before vacuuming. Leave doors closed and heating or cooling off for 15 minutes post-vacuuming. Follow this regime for several cleanings.

www.ewg.org...


an end of life carbon 'bigfoot' print.

there have been two occasions in the last three years where cfl bulbs have shattered in my vicinity.
the clients/owners had no idea as to handling the disposal and after suggesting actions similar to above, i was frowned at and both insisted there was no danger whatsoever. profit eh?

f.
btw i would not wear a dust mask only a cartridge filter respirator when in the vicinity.

That's it????? That's all????? Well, now I know we're safe.

www.disambiguity.com...
Twenty-five million American adults cannot read the poison warnings on a can of pesticide, a letter from their child’s teacher, or the front page of a daily paper. An additional 35 million read only at a level which is less than equal to the full survival needs of our society.

Together, these 60 million people represent more than one third of the entire adult population.

Yikes, I think we're in trouble Tonto!

i dont know about the rest of the world but in the uk we can still get the old "clean" incandescent bulbs in the uk through a loop hole that manufactures found to get around the EU ban on them.
link

not only the mercury the dodgy amount of uv they give of when they come to the end of there lives some dont have internal fuses and can catch fire.

reply to post by happykat39


I agree that LEDs are the way to go, but you will get gouged at Lowes or Home Depot. I buy on eBay and get them from China. A lot better at a fraction of the cost. You really have to pay attention to voltage and color temp, though. I bought some that gave off a bluish white light that I just couldn't tolerate, but they are OK for outdoors or closets.

When I finally get around to putting up some solar panels and do a little re-wiring, I'll switch out the LEDs I have now with some 12v LEDs.

After getting rid of most of the CFLs I had, I noticed I have fewer headaches.

CFLs and LEDs remind me of computer CD drives. First, you could get a CD drive for your computer: great! Then, they came out with double speed drives: cool! Then quad-speed, a few months later, 6x, then 8x, 12x, 16x, etc. It was like every six months they came out with a higher speed CD drive. The whole thing seemed designed to make you upgrade your CD drive every so often. I think they are doing the same thing with CFLs and LEDs. Put out low perfomance stuff first, then slowly improve on it to keep sucking money out of the consumers.

Stellar thread, right away S&F from me and here is why.
As I type this I am recuperating from surgery to remove cancer from my back.
I am all too aware of the dangers of direct sunlight and CFL bulbs.

After reading this thread and thinking back a few days to my surgery you will never guess what I realized.
Our hospital here in town is brand spanking new, not anywhere did we see a CFL light fixture and they sure push them here in Canada.

Here is another reason to be very cautious of these suckers (CFL'S)
www.dailymail.co.uk...

We have stockpiled at least 200 incandescent bulbs and plan on buying more before they are not available here in Canada.

Regards, Iwinder

reply to post by VictorVonDoom

"Put out low perfomance stuff first, then slowly improve on it to keep sucking money out of the consumers."

Not only low performance stuff but very dangerous as well.....
Regards,Iwinder

Originally posted by Neocrusader
I'm sure I read somewhere that they also emit some kind of electromagnetic field ( or something along those lines, memories a little fuzzy, and can't conduct an Internet search at the moment )

But again something that has been said to be not terribly good for us

Rollye James is a radio host I listened to for years and she had a real thing about CFL's, Among what the thread already mentioned, her biggest gripe was radio interference they threw off. She was a major Shortwave/AM Radio listener for other things and railed about how these did all kinds of nasty things to her reception. So, I guess they do throw off enough.

Recently one CFL cracked in my studio. It did not fall, it just buzzed and went out, and some cracks appeared on the glass. I did not know anything about mercury or posphor and I just left it there because there wasn't any replacement available in the studio. Which by the way is a closed room that can't be areated apart from a door, and it's full of audio and video equipment that gathers dust and probably gets permanently contaminated. Now this thread got me quite terrified!

reply to post by Roobix

Well last year i decided not to grow my herbs (rosemary/parsley,etc,) under a CFL and guess what, i got a very sweet tasting produce which was not as potent but still very yummy!....So natural is the way to go my man.
:

Originally posted by Neocrusader
I'm sure I read somewhere that they also emit some kind of electromagnetic field ( or something along those lines, memories a little fuzzy, and can't conduct an Internet search at the moment )

But again something that has been said to be not terribly good for us

CFLs emit absolutely SCREAMING EMI (electro-magnetic interference) that interferes wiith AM (broadcast band) interception. The CFL over my radio was replaced with an incandescent for that reason. I am a fan of CCrane LED light bulbs. When I determine the best color temp for my needs and the prices come down, I'll get a houseful of them.

Originally posted by Ex_CT2
Not surprised. I knew the push for CFLs was too precipitous.

You had to be pretty blind not to see it. Here they had reps for the power companies knocking on our doors and offering, for free, to change all our bulbs with CFL ones.

As if that wasn't suspicious!

Were we really supposed to believe that the giant power corporations were our friends and wanted to help us lower our power bills and their profits?

Originally posted by fakedirt
CFLs can be smart choices. Just be careful.

1. Isolate the site.
Get everyone out of the area. Open windows, leave the room, and close the door behind you. Turn off the heating or cooling system. Children and pregnant or nursing mothers should not return until cleanup is complete.

2. Air out the room for 5 to 15 minutes.
Give mercury vapor time to disperse and settle into tiny dust-like beads. Don't wait longer: mercury spreads easily.

3. Don safety gear.
Wear rubber gloves, safety (or other) glasses, work clothes and a dust mask or face covering when cleaning up the broken bulb.

4. Put large bulb pieces and other waste in a large glass jar with a screw-on metal lid, such as a Mason jar.
Scoop up glass fragments and dust with stiff paper or cardboard and deposit in the jar. Pat the area with sticky tape to collect tiny splinters and dust, then wipe with a damp cloth, baby wipe or moist paper towels. (Second choice: a plastic jar with a screw-on lid.)

5. Seal up the waste.
Put paper, cardboard, tape and wipes in the jar and close the lid. Throw away any contaminated fabrics, like clothing or bedding, that have come into direct contact with bulb fragments.

6. If a bulb breaks on a rug or carpeting:
Fabrics are harder to clean than hard surfaces; removing all mercury may be impossible. Hang a CFL-contaminated rug outside. Experts disagree on whether to vacuum carpeting. EPA recommends doing so and cleaning the vacuum afterward. Scientists with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection disagree: after testing various CLF cleanup scenarios [link], they concluded that vacuuming can spread mercury vapor and permanently contaminate the vacuum.

Keep infants, children and women of childbearing age away from the carpeting for several weeks.

7. Wash up.
The clothes you wore to clean up the breakage can be washed unless they made direct contact with the broken bulb or dust. Wipe your shoes with wet wipes or a moist paper towel, then add the wipes to the waste jar.

Wash your hands and face.

8. Follow your state's disposal rules.
Use EPA's website to find the nearest location for disposal of household hazardous waste www.epa.gov/bulbrecycling If no facilities exist it may be legal to send well-packaged waste to your local landfill.

www.epa.gov...

9. Ventilate the room for several more hours.
Next time you clean the area:

Turn off heating or cooling systems, close the room's doors and open the windows before vacuuming. Leave doors closed and heating or cooling off for 15 minutes post-vacuuming. Follow this regime for several cleanings.

www.ewg.org...


an end of life carbon 'bigfoot' print.

there have been two occasions in the last three years where cfl bulbs have shattered in my vicinity.
the clients/owners had no idea as to handling the disposal and after suggesting actions similar to above, i was frowned at and both insisted there was no danger whatsoever. profit eh?

f.
btw i would not wear a dust mask only a cartridge filter respirator when in the vicinity.

These bulbs have smashed around me several times as when helping redecorate the home, a lightbulb on tripod to shine light on where we were working, crashed down and it happened twice in several weeks,....how the hell can anyone do all the above steps to clean up this stuff.... the only thing we could do was get the lightbulb and bin it, and then sweep or hoover up....as for opening up all the windows, abit hard when trying to do some painting and need the windows shut... How many homes are being polluted, as friends of mine don't even know they contain mercury as the clever-asses who manufacture these were scared to state that mercury was in these bulbs as many people stopped buying them, so they decided to not mention it anymore on the packet. Check for yourselves, they no longer state this ! So I hear how friends look at me horrified when i tell them they contain mercury, and they say their kids smashed some accidentally or they smash them in their recycle bin all the time, and their kids have fun at times throwing them in their bin outside to see they smash !!!! This is crazy, and the world is being messed up....its not about environment, but profit !

Originally posted by happykat39
reply to post by fakedirt

 

Morons and insane idiots must abound in any government agency that can write that clean up procedure, that nearly 100% won't follow, and then tell us how energy efficient and SAFE they are. And, even if they had the written procedure in their hands, how many people do you know who are equipped to do it and get it right.

I was a staff level manufacturing engineer and I can tell you that performing safety training for shop personnel for far easier procedures was a difficult task. How any government agency can expect the average member of the household to be able to carry out those procedures would be laughable if it were not so serious.

Its ridiculous, even someone obsessive like me cannot even realistically carry out all these procedures, and what do you do if it goes into the carpet ? this is a nonsense....

A month or so ago we had to go out of town for some medical appointments and were forced to book a room in a hotel for the night.

We brought our laptop and books to read to keep us busy.
Every bulb in the room (except the bathroom) was a CFL, we could not see good enough to read that night I am telling you they put out terrible light in our opinion only.

This was our fist experience with them that was not just a walk by but stuck with them for the afternoon and night.

I am not kidding here, the next time we have to do the hotel thing we are packing at least two incandescent bulbs for the night table lights.

I say this with confidence that never ever ever will a CFL bulb be found in our home here.

Regards, Iwinder

Watch this video.....EPIC!

reply to post by baddmove


That video was just fantastic, we need people like that guy up here in Canada.
I liked his no nonsense right to bone way he presented his thoughts.

Thanks for posting that and I hope everyone here on this thread takes a few minutes to watch it.
Regards, Iwinder

berkeley.academia.edu...

In many ways environmentalist do more harm than good.

First, clean energy isn’t so clean. Alternative energy simply breeds alternative side effects. Solar cells contain heavy metals. Photovoltaic manufacturing releases greenhouse gases such as sulfur hexafluoride, with a global warming potential over twenty-three thousand times higher than CO2, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Wind turbines require a dual system – one set of turbines for when the wind is blowing and a backup system to cover still periods – an incredibly expensive luxury. And, alternative energy technologies still rely on fossil fuels. Sunlight and wind are renewable. Solar cells and wind turbines are not.

Read more: thehill.com...

Remember that your laptop and many earlier tablets us CFL's to back-illuminate the LCD screen. You are being exposed to them all day if you work in front of a laptop or large panel display, or are an avid web junkie....

Just some experience using CFL's - Bulb replacements.

The most common failure is really the power supply/ballast located in the screw socket. Many times these fail with a "pop" or worse, a small explosion. In many cases the light tube dislodges from the socket, but is still hanging by it's lead in wires. In those cases, no mercury has probably escaped. The entire unit is junk and really needs to be disposed of properly. Don't make things worse by smashing the unit in a garbage pail. You can keep the parts in a closed box, outside until you have enough of this junk to take to your recycle center where they can deal with it properly. I, myself cannot wait until LED's become so affordable, that they will replace these crappy devices, and it looks like that is coming very soon.

reply to post by charles1952

I like all the environmental and energy saving reasons for switching to better light bulbs but I always suspect there was this UV element since I read a couple studies over the past couple years. This led me to use an incandescent back when my light didn't have a cover. Now that incandescents are no longer sold, I can't get them. But I was fortunate enough to find a cover for my light. It has a CFL bulb in it, but I'm hoping that the cover gives some protection. I use my computer a lot. I'm also about 8 feet from the lamp and facing in the opposite direction.

Another thing I want to say is that during the time I was looking into this I also read some forum posts that had been made by photosensitives and many had bad reactions to CFL.