frank.logullo wrote:
From: "lee houston"
Subject: compact flourescents, mercury hazard?
Date: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 5:10 PM

Seems a bit extreme? Mercury hazard and/or yellow jounalism?

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55213

lee

I'm not sure how much mercury is in these bulbs but here is what and
environmental group says:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005...about_merc.php
Mercury toxicity depends on molecule that contains it. If it were that
toxic, all us older people would be dead from all the mercurochrome we used
to use
Frank



Well, a compact fluorescent certainly contains a minute amount of
mercury. As has every regular fluorescent ever sold. I don't advocate
intentionally creating a mercury spill but I certainly don't panic about
a broken fluorescent. And I'm still trying to figure out what the first
linked URL means by "mercury powder". The powder in a any sort of
fluorescent bulb is the phosphor. The mercury is inserted during
manufacture as a small drop of liquid metal which partially vaporizes in
the vacuum and is ionized by the current through the tube.

--
John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]
http://johnmcgaw.com