In article om,
Lawrence wrote:

On Apr 17, 4:34 pm, "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

I don't know how much mercury is in those bulbs but am surprised that
there is any at all. From what I understand, mercury is quite
hazardous in the environment and is very hard to get rid of once it's
there.

Bottom line: mercury is worth avoiding and these
environmentalist should have taken the issue more seriously before
they promoted the bulbs. I cannot imagine that the bulbs can really
be "green" if they contain this poison.

As pointed out already, there really is only a tiny amount of mercury
used in fluorescent bulbs and is essential to its operation. And yes,
the chemical form of the elements are likewise important. An unbroken
bulb safely contains the mercury to the inside of the bulb. But chucking
large numbers of these bulbs with reckless abandon in landfills is not a
good idea. Proper collection and disposal is required.

Heavy metals (lead, arsenic, mercury, cadmium) are accumulated dose
poisons in that they are retained in the body for extremely long periods
of time before the body excretes them. For that reason even a low dose
continuously ingested over long time interval is just as dangerous to
health as a single large dose. A single low dose exposure entails
minimum risk. A good analogy is radiation risk. The patient gets only a
single dose but the administering technician must be concerned about
accumulated repeated dose. Still psychologically it is still disturbing
when the X-RAY technician runs and hides behind the lead shielding while
you lie there all alone for the X-ray.

This is a risk/benefit scenario, energy savings versus some proper
disposal control management.

Life is a compromise in many things.

Morenuf
--
lid