My 'Oh Gee Whiz' stuff
 

Just to let you know. Those wonderful new bulbs they are hawking....have mercury in them. Remember all the mercury in fish controversies?

To date I know of no site where you can safely dispose of them.

I also read that as they burn out they give off fumes which has the mercury in it.

Not to mention what happens when and if you break one?

The mercury in one bulb is not huge, but when we are all using them (if we do) then we have a mercury problem.

I know someone out there might feel they have a good response. I'm just as 'in the dark' as anyone else is. So feel free to inform.

:Sigh:just get irked that we are presented with these energy solutions and sometimes we wonder whether saving energy off sets the risk of mercury poisoning.

Tootsie

About a year ago a friend of mine sent me an email with the same info. He went to Home Depot and asked them about the bulbs, if they knew if they have mercury in them, they acted real dumb...he then asked where do you dispose them...they were clueless.

This morning on the news they were talking about how we should change all of our bulbs to the new ugly ones...

I don't know what to say...I have a few in my house...

I got concerned and I googled this and found a lot of good information. For instance, the amount of mercury in one bulb is a tiny fraction of what was in the old mercury thermometers (100 lightbulbs to equal one thermometer).

It also said that no mercury is released while the bulb is intact or in use. There are also links to agencies to find local recyclers of CFL bulbs.

Once I read all the info, I felt a lot better. I had already changed over at least half of the bulbs in my house! I'm not sure if we can post links here or not, so I didn't want to. The info I found was on a government site (energystar) so I felt it was pretty trustworthy. I just googled CFL bulbs and mercury.

Don't panic - it doesn't sound like it's all that bad.

No panic here. How many thermometers do we have in our homes vs. lightbulbs though? I have many, many lightbulbs.

Any amount of mercury in the environment is not good, but eventually all those bulbs will get old and be discarded.

I haven't found any place that recycles the bulbs. IF you have please share it.

So far we haven't replaced bulbs. We will keep the old and just be more careful of leaving them on too much.

Doesn't Energy Star make the bulbs? If so it's kind of like any manufacturers site.

They rarely have any of the bad points.

I guess this can be an interesting debate. Will the new lightbulbs really make a difference or will they just cause more problems down the line.

I'm all for new stuff; just like it well thought out. Sometimes we do things for political reasons and not for the good of all.

Tootsie:)

Energystar does not manufacture anything. They are a government agency who regulates energy standards for pretty much everything from TV's to washers, dryers, computer monitors, etc. You will see a big star on an appliance and it says it is Energy Star compliant. In order to receive that, they have to comply with certain energy usage standards. They also regulate the energy claims on these light bulbs.

I forgot to add this to my other message. If one thermometer has an equal amount of mercury to 100 light bulbs, then I would say that even one thermometer is one too many. How many people even have 100 light bulbs? I sure don't.

I have a lot of lightbulbs. Haven't counted them though:eek:

I have a bunch of thermometers too. I keep the old kind in a tin box. Don't use them.

I have the new digital type now.

Let's see....Bonus room/office has six. Great room has five. Kitchen is big light bulb place here...so it has at least 10, not including the smaller under counter bulbs, the oven and the fridge:D.

Laundry has two.

Entrance has two.

Master bedroom has 5 and master bath has at least 8.

Guest bath has only one.

Guest rooms have 6; hall has one more.

Downstairs guest bath has one.

Dining room has two.

Garage has 2.

Workshop... Well, got a lot there, but mostly neon so I dont know how to count those.

Shed has one and crawlspace has 2.

Oh yeah...under eave storage has 2.

And the emergency light for the pump has it's own and the hot tub has one (don't even ask! ).

Anyway, I think I have about 57 that I can think of.

So. I guess I have equal to 1/2 the thermometer! The mercury given off in a thermometer is not the same as the gas in the bulb though is it?

This is weird isn't it:p

Tootsie

I don't care about the lightbulbs in my house. They present no hazard if the mercury is contained. What I care about are the millions of these things that we are going to be putting into our municipal solid waste landfills.

Businesses are required to dispose of fluorescent light tubes as universal waste and have them recycled because of their mercury content. People can take them to their local household hazardous waste centers to dispose of them properly so the mercury can be recycled, but 99.5% of households won't take the time to do this, so they will end up in our landfills, continuing to pollute our soils and water. Later when we do "clean" it up, we won't actually make much of a difference. We'll waste a lot of money studying it to death, remove a little bit of contamination, leaving the rest, and then write a risk assessment summary to show how the number of people who end up getting cancer from exposure to the site is within certain tolerances.

What a cosmically stupid idea. It makes me very sad. On the positive side, at least I will continue to be employed for a very long time. (My job is to help remediate these sites after the damage is done).

Lightbulbs
 

This is very interesting. I checked it out on snopes. (For those of you who don't know snopes is a dot-com website that is great for checking out whether stories-- particularly those on the internent -- are true or false, or somewhere in between.)

They have good information about these bulbs. They tell you exactly what you should do if you break one. Thanks for informing me about this. I agree that noone is pointing this (albeit small) danger to the public.

hhmmm, when I was a kid I had a box with about a teaspoon of mercury in it that I would play with. :eek: But I'm also sure my mom smoked and drank when pregnant with me, and I probably ate lead paint too. So something is going to get me sooner or later.

But, if you have an Ikea near you, they will take back the bulbs with mercury in them. I'm not sure it's worth it, but if anyone wants to dispose of their bulbs and don't have an Ikea near by they can send them to me and I can take them in.

This is all new stuff, really. However, I do believe that within a certain period of years CFL's will be the only bulbs available. Between now and then, the issue of joe consumer disposing of them will be addressed. These bulbs have a very long lifespan ~ 5 - 9 years depending on the particular bulb and usage. So I am going to continue the change over. I am also going to check back on energystar.gov and check those links to see if there is a local recycler. I also have an IKEA here, so as Bets pointed out I can always go there.

I guess the greater problem is how we dispose of this stuff. Ikea ( I love that store!) is no where near me and the closest landfill that will take mercury related items is probably at least a hundred miles away.

I hate to be a skeptic, but I wonder what IKEA does with them? We need to know the end stuff. Like what really happens to the mercury.

I imagine many of our landfills nearer to us would like to take this stuff but they are licensed also and probably can't get okayed for these hazardous materials.

There are good sites online which explain the various types of mercury and what it does and if it is hazardous.

I'm old so I remember when this was an issue in the past relating to thermometers and fish, etc.

I know the stuff is here but I don't want to support these quick fixes or political stuff (like replacing light bulbs) till we know more.

I live in an area that grows a lot of corn. Guess what. If the farmers didn't sell to developers they figured wow, now I'll grow it for fuel (the corn). But.....that boosted the price to the consumer for the corn we like to eat and eventually may make it scarce.

Nothing is perfect I know, but lets all not buy into any quick fixes. We need substance.

Tootsie

I, personally, do not feel skeptical at all about what IKEA does with the bulbs. That company has a commitment to the environment. If anyone is doing the right thing, I would bet it is IKEA. When you shop there, they encourage you to buy reusable bags and charge per bag if you use the throw away plastic ones.

At Christmas, they sell Christmas trees. It's been years since I bought one there since I got a fake one, so I'm not sure I will remember the deal exactly, but they charge a flat rate for any tree. It's something like $20 and you get a certain amount back (I want to say $10) if you bring the tree back after Christmas and then they make sure it gets recycled (mulch, I think) and doesn't end up in a landfill.

I'm not worried about ikea either. If they are taking them, they are having them recycled.

Most counties/cities will have a local household hazardous waste collection site. You just need to contact them and you can drop them off there. Don't break them or crush them. They are sent to companies that crush them to remove the mercury which they then sell back to manufacturers for reuse in their products.

We are in a small town; the county is experiencing rapid growth and is over burdened. We do have a landfill that will take certain items, but you take them there. So far I haven't heard that they will take the mercury bulbs, but as you said it's new.

Our garbage collection is private, not included in taxes. They don't take many recycled things. Frustrating.

My frustration is what to do with the foam containers???

Our supermarket usually have a place for plastic bags.

One of the local supermarkets is no longer going to use the plastic bags but will use the paper. You are encouraged to use your own canvas bags or buy theirs. I note that the supermarket I shop in has that too. You can buy some fairly sturdy ones for around $.99. They also have a $4.00 or $5.00 variety.

Isn't it funny. When my grandmother was younger she used her own bag; and now all the years later we are going back.

Recycling will have to become 2nd nature to us or it's a real bother (yes, I think it's worth it).

I'm always 'repurposing things' so they don't end up in the trash.

Maybe we could start a thread??? Think I'll try it.:)

Tootsie

Not just for my 'gee whiz!'
 

:Scratch-Head:I meant this as a forum for you to add your own 'gee whiz' stuff folks...so go ahead!

Tootsie

Good point. I doubt, too, that anyone bothered ever to dispose of all those big tube flourescent light bulbs properly, either. and look how long they've been in use.

And how many of them are/were out there.

I wnder how much mercury is in one of those 8' bulbs - I have 4 of them in my kitchen.

:eek:

Imagine how many are in any given school or factory or store. Hmmm.

But then, who disposes of ANY hazardous waste correctly? Ever see your neighbors change their oil? You think they know where that's supposed to go? Not down the storm drain.

Old paint, anti freeze, asbestos brake pads... all in the local dump.

Boy, i'm a little ray of sunshine huh?

:p

You probably won't get the 'ray of sunshine' award. You are right though.

I too have seen how people get rid of their garbage (paint, oil, etc) and it is alarming.

There is the expression 'fouling one's own nest'. I guess it could apply to our human race.

Having said that it's also hard to figure out how to 'be' without leaving a trail of trash behind.

I do try hard to research and purchase things that are less onerous to our environment.

I suppose candles are pretty ideal for light, but none of us will want to go back to reading by candle light.

I started a 'repurposing' thread on here. It's for ideas about how to reuse things rather than toss them.

I also told my DH that he has to abide by the rules and cannot just pour his oil in the bushes:eek:. So now he behaves and takes it to recycling centers.

We just have to hope they don't pour it in their bushes.

Sigh....

Tootsie

I switched our light bulbs to the new ones a few months ago. I have noticed a small lowering of our light bill. Besides, in a few years, incandecent light bulbs will be phazed out.

To throw them away, any hardware store like Home Depot or Lowes will take them for disposial.

Earl

blame the fingers for the bad spelling.