CFLs: Poison in a Bottle

CFLs: Poison in a Bottle

LEDs contain zero amounts of mercury, CFLs have 4.0 milligrams in each bulb

Would you rather drink zero milligrams of mercury or 4.0 milligrams of mercury? How about when it’s our lakes and rivers that take that toxic gulp? Compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) contain, on average, 4.0 milligrams of mercury per bulb, according to a recent report by Energy Star®, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) program. The mercury in CFLs is necessary to make the fluorescent bulbs glow, decently and efficiently. However, a shattered CFL is neither decent, nor efficient.

In essence, a mother who installs CFLs is planting pinches of poison throughout her home, drops of quicksilver shielded by thin spirals of glass that are often at nose-level to pets with pep and children with curious minds.

LED light bulbs are mercury-free.

What is Mercury?

Mercury is an element found naturally in the environment, in deposits throughout the world. It’s the only metal that is liquid at or near room temperature and pressure under standard conditions, hence mercury’s splashy nickname quicksilver. In its insoluble form, mercury is harmless. But industrial pollution releases unnatural amounts of mercury into the atmosphere. When mercury falls from the air, it can accumulate in lakes and oceans in the form of methylmercury that fish and shellfish absorb. People eat fish that is abnormally high in mercury and, over time, can develop mercury poisoning. Leaching mercury from landfills also, over time, causes abnormally high mercury in fish.

Mercury Poisoning

Mercury poisoning damages the central nervous system, digestive system, endocrine system, kidneys (among other organs), mouth, gum, and teeth. Long-term exposure to mercury vapor can cause brain damage and ultimately death. Fetuses and infants are particularly susceptible to toxic mercury and its compounds. Pregnant women who are exposed to the element can sometimes have babies with serious defects such as Minamata disease, a neurological disorder that in its most severe form can cause paralysis, coma, and death. Mercury exposure in young children can cause severe neurological consequences, preventing nerve sheaths from forming properly – particularly the formation of myelin.

Consumption of Fish with High Mercury Levels

The consumption of fish is by far the most common of ingested-related mercury exposure in humans, although plants and livestock can also contain mercury due to bioaccumulation caused by industrial pollution. According to a study by Columbia University, 32% of lakes and 20% of rivers in the United States do not meet water quality standards for mercury content. Additionally, 48 states have fish health advisories and 1 in 6 women of childbearing age have unsafe mercury levels.

Direct Exposure: Broken CFLs and Mercury Vapor

When a CFL bulb breaks, the mercury vapor leaked is the most deadly. Although highly toxic (wear gloves), liquid mercury is poorly absorbed by skin. It is the potential release of highly poisonous mercury vapor from a CFL that poses the most immediate health hazard. In one study cited by The Boston Globe, researchers “shattered 65 compact fluorescent lights to test air quality and cleanup methods. They found that, in many cases, immediately after the bulb was broken -- and sometimes even after a cleanup was attempted -- levels of mercury vapor exceeded federal guidelines for chronic exposure by as much as 100 times.”

For reasons such as these, the EPA warns consumers who do break a CFL bulb to first open windows and allow air to circulate to the affected area. They should sweep up all of the glass fragments and phosphor powder without vacuuming. A vacuum would further distribute the mercury vapor into the air. Finally, consumers should place the bulb in a place bag and wipe the area with a damp paper towel to pick up stray shards of glass or fine particles.

A widely publicized incident highlighting CFLs’ dangers occurred in early 2007 when Brandy Bridges of Prospect, Maine decided to replace all the inefficient incandescent bulbs in her home with two dozen CFLs. When a bulb she was installing in a ceiling fixture in her seven-year old daughter’s room crashed to the floor and broke, Bridges called Home Depot, where she purchased the bulbs. The store warned her not to vacuum the carpet and directed her to call Prospect’s Poison Control hotline. A specialist from Maine Center for Disease Control evaluated her home and estimated costs of cleaning up the one CFL bulb, conservatively, at $2,000. Since Bridges could not afford the clean-up, she sealed up her daughter’s room with plastic and tape.

Follow-up studies after the Bridges incident found that mercury levels from a shattered compact fluorescent bulb can spike mercury vapor levels to over 300 times the EPA’s standard accepted safety level. The Maine Department of Health (MDOP) consequently made eight new recommendations for usage and clean-up of CFLs, including the recommendation to not even use the bulbs in carpeted rooms where children or pregnant women live. The likelihood of breakage, near impossibility of cleanup and risk of prolonged exposure, the MDOP concluded, are just too great.

Coal-Burning Power and CFLs

Coal-burning power plants account for roughly 40% of mercury emissions in the Unites States. Advocates of CFLs point out that the reduction in energy produced by coal-burning plants if all citizens switched from incandescent bulbs to CFLs would actually reduce the overall amount of annual mercury emissions. This reasoning is based on assumptions that all areas of the country rely on at least some coal-fired electricity and that, as energy demands decrease due higher CFL use, there would be causal reduction of power generated by coal-fired plants.

“For such [non-coal electricity] regions, would not necessarily result in coal-fired electricity,” said the EPA in a statement regarding mercury control emissions. The Environmental Protection Agency points out that lamp manufactures and utilities have indicated that, for many parts of the country, the marginal demand for electricity would be satisfied by gas and oil units, not necessarily coal-fired units.

But why reduce mercury emissions caused by broken CFL light bulbs when you can eliminate them altogether by using mercury-free LED bulbs?

Most People Aren’t Natural Recyclers

According to the EPA, over 670 million mercury-containing bulbs are discarded each year. Most of these bulbs are fluorescents, including, increasingly, compact fluorescent lights. (The other type of mercury-containing bulbs is high intensity discharge bulbs that are used in street lights.) Fluorescents provide the most lighting for schools, hospitals, office buildings, and stores. CFLs, used mostly in homes, have gained more popularity in recent years as the “eco-friendly” alternative to incandescent lights.

However, the “eco-friendly” reputation of CFLs ignores the technology’s mercury contribution; the EPA recommends that all CFLs be disposed of at CFL Recycling Centers, which safely handle and re-use the mercury from burned-out bulbs. Landfill workers and garbage truck personnel are at the greatest risk to contract mercury poisoning from broken CFL bulbs due to longevity and quantity of exposure to broken CFLs.

If not brought to a recycling plant, a CFL bulb will shatter -- whether it’s from a three-pointer into the trash bin, from a rambunctious ride in a garbage truck, or beneath two tons of trash at the landfill -- 4.0 milligrams of toxic liquid will eventually seep underground.

Given an option to drive a recycling plant or simply toss the fizzled CFL bulb into the trash, most consumers will opt for the in-home option. “Most people aren’t natural recyclers,” said Peter Keller from Eco Lights Northwest, the only company in Washington state that recycles fluorescent lights. “If [recycling CFLs] isn’t made easy, it doesn’t happen. So if the bulbs are small enough to fit into the trash can, that’s where they end up.”

LEDs: Longer Lifespans and Instant Brightness

LEDs have, on average, four times the lifespan of comparable CFLs, with rated life spans between 30,000 to 50,000 hours for LEDs versus 6,000 to 15,000 hours for equivalent efficiency CFLs. Additionally, CFLs have a “starting up” time that is required to achieve full brightness. The lifespan of a CFL bulb can be greatly reduced -- by as much as 80% -- if one routinely turns the CFL off after less than five minutes of use. In high-traffic areas such as kitchens and bathrooms, if a CFL is not given ample time to “warm up” before being turning off, each “pre-emptive off” occasion can reduce a bulb’s useful life span by as much as three hours. Consumers have reported some CFL bulbs dying within 12 months of household use, which may be due to on/off cycles that are less than the “ideal conditions” in which CFL bulbs are rated.

LED lamps turn on instantly (reach full brightness immediately) which eliminates any wasted time and electricity associated with the “start up” period of CFLs. LED owners are also never inconvenienced by turning on lights before they need them, nor do they have to consciously contemplate their on/off light schedules to maximize bulb lifetimes.

LEDs Have Larger Range of Colors and Operating Temperatures Than CFLs

Aside from having mercury, CFLs lights also have additional lighting design drawbacks. Being a gas discharge lamp, a CFL will not generate all frequencies of visible light, resulting in a narrow color temperature range for compact fluorescents lamps.

The color of light provided by fluorescent lamps is dependent on the color of light used and mercury discharge which react differently a varying temperatures. High ambient operation tends to shift CFL lamp color towards the blue/green end of the visible spectrum, which is noticeable to the naked eye. LED lamps do not experience color shift. Precise colors can be “dialed-in” by computer-controlled LED lights.

Extreme temperatures also reduce CFLs’ light output. For every 2 degree F increase in temperature above 100 degrees F, CFLs experience 1% light loss. Especially for recessed lighting or “enclosed fixtures”, elevated temperatures reduce CFLs’ light output.

LEDs operate at comparatively lower temperatures than CFLs primarily due to LEDs’ better heat management and dissipation. Most CFLs will not turn on or will emit very low levels of light in cold and freezing temperatures. LED performance, on the other hand, actually benefits from colder temperatures.

Another Change We Can Believe In

As a stopgap technology, CFLs gave green-conscious consumers a viable, low-energy alternative to energy-hogging incandescents. But fluorescents still stain the Earth with harmful mercury. Now, with Mother Nature in peril, LED has emerged as the permanent lighting solution.

The shifting paradigm of advancing technology has enabled the Earth-conscious consumer to completely skip over CFLs. LED fixtures and bulbs provide a mercury-free leap of LED longevity, versatility, and Earth-saving efficiency -- fantastic news for everyone, today and tomorrow.