Energy saving Light bulbs

Rebecca - posted on 12/13/2009

When we bought our house 3 years ago all the lights were engery saving, even the lamp in the hood over the stove. We had to change them all becasue my mother has lupus and it sent off her spells and she wasn't able to visit unless they were gone.

Michelle - posted on 02/18/2009

Quoting Michelle:

They are also melt and can catch fire.  We had one in our Garage and My husband went to change it after hearing about the health issues and noticed it was all distorted from melting.

Sorry that should say they can also melt

Michelle - posted on 02/18/2009

They are also melt and can catch fire.  We had one in our Garage and My husband went to change it after hearing about the health issues and noticed it was all distorted from melting.

Dawn - posted on 02/07/2009

that's interesting...not that your research isn't founded but we've been using them for years and we are hardly ever sick. i've never heard of that but i will look into it.

Jasmine - posted on 02/07/2009

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_flu...



Broken and discarded lamps

Public adoption of CFLs in the U.S. has been slowed by one widely-circulated story of how the Maine Department of Environmental Protection detected mercury contamination following a residential CFL breakage incident, and the homeowner was presented with a US$2,000 estimate from an environmental cleanup firm.[48]



Although initially dismissed as an overreaction, subsequent scientific studies by the Maine DEP [49] and also Brown University in 2008 have confirmed that—contrary to earlier belief—the amount of mercury released by a broken CFL bulb greatly exceeds EPA safety standards.[citation needed]



Spent lamps should be recycled to contain the small amount of mercury in each lamp, in preference to disposal in landfills. Only 3 percent of CFL bulbs are properly disposed of or recycled.[citation needed] In the European Union, CFLs are one of many products subject to the WEEE recycling scheme. The retail price includes an amount to pay for recycling, and manufacturers and importers have an obligation to collect and recycle CFLs. Safe disposal requires storing the bulbs unbroken until they can be processed. In the US, The Home Depot is the first retailer to make CFL recycling options widely available.[50]



Special handling instructions for breakage are currently not printed on the packaging of household CFL bulbs in many countries. The amount of mercury released by one bulb can exceed U.S. federal guidelines for chronic exposure.[51][49] Chronic however, implies that the exposure takes place over a long period of time and the Maine DEP study noted that it remains unclear what the health risks are from exposure to low levels of elemental mercury particularly to sensitive populations. The Maine DEP study also confirmed that, despite following EPA best-practice cleanup guidelines on broken CFLs, researchers were unable to remove mercury from carpet, and any agitation of the carpet—particularly by young children playing—created spikes as high as 25,000 ng/m3 of air, even weeks after the initial breakage. Conventional tubular fluorescent lamps have been used since 1938 with little concern about handling, although these are not generally subjected to the rigours of ordinary household use.[citation needed] The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends that, in the absence of local guidelines, fluorescent bulbs be double-bagged in plastic before disposal.[52]



The Maine DEP study of 2008 compared clean-up methods, and warned that the EPA recommendation of plastic bags was the worst choice, as vapours well above safe levels continued to leach from the bags. The Maine DEP now recommends a sealed glass jar as the best repository for a broken bulb.



The first step of processing CFLs involves crushing the bulbs in a machine that uses negative pressure ventilation and a mercury-absorbing filter or cold trap to contain mercury vapor. Many municipalities are purchasing such machines. The crushed glass and metal is stored in drums, ready for shipping to recycling factories.



According to the Northwest Compact Fluorescent Lamp Recycling Project, because household users have the option of disposing of these products in the same way they dispose of other solid waste, "a large majority of household CFLs are going to municipal solid waste". They additionally note that an EPA report on mercury emissions from fluorescent tube lamp disposal indicates the percentage of total mercury released from the following disposal options: municipal waste landfill 3.2%, recycling 3%, municipal waste incineration 17.55% and hazardous waste disposal 0.2%.[53]

Malinda - posted on 02/06/2009

Too late now, but we did use a wet disposable cloth to clean it up.... Now we know!

Sara - posted on 02/06/2009

ya they're pretty dangerous if they break your suppost to stay as far away for about 15 minutes then clean it very carfully with gloves on and every thing in the room should be cleaned.

Malinda - posted on 02/06/2009

I recently had one break in my dining room (we do have them outside and one fell out of the box I was moving)... it was a month ago so I don't know if I should still be worried, but holy cow... now I sort of am.

Sara - posted on 02/06/2009

Ya i know i only found out recently since the place we moved to had utilities included and the landlord put in the energy saving bulbs, we kept getting sick and I talked to my grandmother who had seen something about it on tv. so i decided to research it and i guesse they are dangerous so i took them all out

Malinda - posted on 02/06/2009

Interesting, I hadn't heard about any of this. We hadn't switched because, frankly, I find even the "soft light" ones to be too harsh and white.