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Posted By Brett Day
Just had an e-mail listing points from an article in the Daily Mail, this is apparently 'official' government advice.
In the event of a bulb breakage:
Evacuate the area for 15 minutes and vent the room
Do not vacuum up broken pieces of bulb - sweep into an airtight bag and seal
Do not handle broken bulbs without protecting your hands - wear rubber gloves
Do not dispose of breakages in general waste (local authority will advise on programme for safe disposal)
So true or false, is this another 'urban legend'?
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Posted By Robert K Lewis
Question really is then "which type of light tube/bulb is the least toxic and environmentally friendly, especially when coupled to a power supply?"
Perhaps we need to swap to solar and/or wind powered LED lighting. Only problem is solar lighting does not work at night and it needs large battery storage capacity: horizontal axis windturbines are less than 20% of claimed efficiency in urban areas and they cause vibration to the structure. The final alternative is vertical axis wind turbines and these are not yet readily available. The latter two also need batteries to store energy if mains back up is not to be used. Also the LED lights are very expensive and of limited capacity wattage wise at this time.
I have seen windbelts but again these are rare and require storage batteries and back up supplies.
Answers in a 500 leaf book A3 size please.
Bob
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Posted By Brett Day
Bob,
Thanks for the grin, needed that the way today is going...
My first thought is trying to source a supplier that will take away the old bulbs when new ones are ordered does anyone have that arrangment with thier supplier? Does it work?
Thanks
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Posted By Stephen D. Clarke
I think fluorescent tubes and compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) contain heavy metals such as mercury at low levels (approx 5mg per bulb). Most household waste recycling centres have a fluorescent tube bin so I expect CFLs would be included in this. My understanding is that as far as the law is concerned for domestic premises the bulbs/tubes go in the non-recylable waste bin although it is recommended that they are taken to the recycling centre. Not sure about workplaces.
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Posted By Mark Farrell
In workplaces we hire a "coffin" and put all of our tubes in this for disposal.
Me thinks this was a slow news day and has now been blown out of all proportion.
Are people really aware of how many other products contain very low doses of heavy metals such as Mercury?
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Posted By andrew morris
Unsurprisingly, I have been asked to advise my employer on this as we about to recieve a fair few of these. On first look, these should comply with CHIP, and we should have the data sheets and then do COSHH... Or can someone point me to an exemption that says lightbulbs are exempt.... Please...
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Posted By Pete48 A couple of things from a trawl of the virtual world. I do not vouch for the content but present them as a balance. "A CFL containing 5 mg of mercury breaks in your child's bedroom that has a volume of about 25 m3 (which corresponds to a medium sized bedroom). The entire 5 mg of mercury vaporizes immediately (an unlikely occurrence), resulting in an airborne mercury concentration in this room of 0.2 mg/m3. This concentration will decrease with time, as air in the room leaves and is replaced by air from outside or from a different room. As a result, concentrations of mercury in the room will likely approach zero after about an hour or so. Under these relatively conservative assumptions, this level and duration of mercury exposure is not likely to be dangerous, as it is lower than the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standard of 0.05 mg/m3 of metallic mercury vapor averaged over eight hours." Professor Sue MacIntosh, Professor of Environmental Health, Harvard University And a link to an article from the middle of last year; this is not a new topic by any means. It was last aired when the use of mercury in barometers was finally banned by the EU. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork/A22400182 Proportionality springs to mind yet again. Simple problem, simple controls that should either exist already or can be put into place with little need for specific assessment. The advice given by the EA is the same as that which has been given for many years with regard to small mercury spills. I guess it is just the realisation that these CFL do contain Mercury that is the interesting point for many.
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Posted By Garry Homer
To think of the fun we had as children playing with beads of mercury in the science lab. Or girls using PCB/PCT from old capacitors as perfume.
I even attended a lecture where a spoonful of mercury was boiled over a flame to show how UV light was modified to produce white light.
Do I have health concerns? Personally no, but my dog has just had stones removed from her bladder, any connection?
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Posted By Tabs
Yeah, I used to have about 2 cl of mercury kept in the plastic box that my bronze swimming badge came in ... I used to play with the "quick silver" to improve my concentration in class (ahem...)
The only possible side effect to me was the fumes - which could explain why I came into H&S in the first place, eh?
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