Jay Ts wrote:
Martin Griffith wrote:

On Mon, 07 Apr 2008 19:43:52 +0100, in sci.electronics.design Mike
wrote:


On 04 Apr 2008 03:42:35 GMT, Jay Ts
wrote:


Another source of lead is CRTs, many of which are still in use. They
contain about 5 pounds of lead each for radiation protection, quite a
bit more than is contained in the solder in the PC boards.

And the replacements, flat screen monitors, have mercury in the
fluorescent backlights.

If you've ever seen the size of a fluorescent backlight for an LCD you'd
realise that scrapping even a few hundred of them produces three fifths
of seven sixteenths of bugger all mercury.

Yes, something about mercury here

http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?
DocumentID=284&ArticleID=3204&l=en


Wow, that was amazingly informative considering the
moderate length of the article.

I'm very concerned about mercury, having had all
my mercury (dentists call it "amalgam") fillings
replaced, and as a result noticing huge improvements
in my ability to mentally focus and concentrate on
tasks for extended periods.

I've been adverse to fluorescent lamps for a long time,
not just because of the mercury. But last year, I read
that CFL bulbs have only about 20 mg of mercury each,
and due to the power savings, even if the mercury from
the new CFL bulbs were released into the environment,
it be less than that of a coal-fired power plant while
generating the difference in power between a CFL and
its incandescent equivalent.

Following that, I was advised that the best ambient lighting
to have for doing digital image editing was 6500K (daylight-
balanced) fluorescent lights, so I decided to give it a try.
That got me hooked, and now practically every bulb around here
is a CFL! And I am _wondering_, was that info regarding the
mercury savings at the power plant actually for real, or was
it mostly mind-control (marketing, "public relations" type
of stuff)? It's just too easy for corporations to spin the
facts to their marketing advantage, and then spread the
deceptions into the media, to be later passed around by
people ... er, like me! I am suspicious.

The next part of the story is that one day I was changing
a CFL bulb to try out a different brand for comparison,
and I dropped it about 5 feet onto a carpeted floor,
and ... wait for it ... IT BROKE! I looked down, realized
what I just did, and laughed to myself that in spite of
all my concern, I'd just given myself my dose of mercury.
I assume that the mercury in the bulb is mostly in vapor
form, and that the rest of it evaporated and I suppose
I ended up breathing at least some of it. I didn't find
any little drops of mercury anywhere.

But at least it was I, the one who chose to purchase the bulb,
who was affected the most, and first, with the consequences.
There's good justice in that, which I fully accept. I'll be
a lot more careful in the future.

I am using CFLs for now, hoping that there will be a better
daylight-balanced choice (LEDs...) by the time the bulbs need
changing. And also, I hope that by that time, I will be able
to give the CFLs to a recycling center.

Jay Ts

http://creelighting.com/index.aspx

these are great, they look fantastic, unity power factor, dimmable, and
last 50,000 hours.

Cheers
Terry