Compact Fluorescent Bulbs - Not the Brightest Idea

With Australians being forced to switch from incandescent globes to CFLs - Compact Fluorescent Lamps (those funny-shaped "Energy Efficient Bulbs") in November 2009, it's important to draw attention to environmental and health issues associated with CFLs.

Like fluorescent tubes, CFLs use mercury to produce light and mercury is the third most toxic substance known to science. CFLs contain around 5mg (mg=milligrams) of mercury and when broken, the mercury is released as a vapour. Mercury vapour is extremely hazardous to human health when it is inhaled or absorbed through the skin. The US Agency for Toxic Substances considers 0.02 micrograms/m3 of mercury vapour to be an acute exposure, and "immediately hazardous to health".

An average bedroom would be approximately 14m3. So if you break a CFL in your bedroom you could be exposed to as much as 357 micrograms/m3 of mercury vapour. If you remain in the room after breaking a CFL you could experience symptoms such as cough, chest pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and fever. Any children in the room would be more vulnerable to these symptoms.

In fact, a US study by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection found that even after attempting to clean up a broken CFL and its contents, the mercury vapour in a room could be 100 times greater than the federal guidelines for chronic exposure. They also found that vacuuming up the debris tended to spread rather than contain mercury vapour. In addition, mercury vapour readings can remain elevated for weeks after breaking a CFL.

So how are we supposed to clean up a broken CFL?

Open nearby windows and ventilate the room before attempting to clean up;
Do not vacuum;
Use protective clothing, including disposable gloves and a disposable brush to gently sweep up the pieces;
Use moist paper towel to wipe up remaining small fragments;
Wrap remains in newspaper and then in a bag or sealable container, along with the cleaning equipment used, including gloves, brush, damp paper;
Place this in your outside rubbish bin.

Surely the manufacturers would include this advice on the CFL box. Yet, on a Phillips 20W CFL I scrutinised in the supermarket, there is not one bit of information on how to clean up and dispose of a broken bulb. To find the above information, it is necessary to search online for government standards. You can also find such advice on lighting company websites.

How many people are using CFLs yet are not aware of the health issues associated with cleaning up a broken CFL? How many people have routinely vacuumed up the fragments and then continued to expose themselves to mercury vapour for months after emptying the vacuum?

What about the environmental issue? Ironically, CFLs were supposedly introduced in an attempt to reduce our CO2 emissions. They do use significantly less electricity than incandescents, but at what cost?

Fluorescent tubes, which contain up to 15mg of mercury have been in use in Australia for decades. There is enough mercury in one fluorescent tube to pollute 30,000 litres of drinking water beyond a safe drinking level. One compact fluorescent light bulb could pollute 10,000 litres of water.

Yet, there is no collection service available for fluorescent globes in most Australian states. You can pay to have commercial volumes of fluoro tubes recycled but that only makes sense for big businesses.

It appears that our government has banned incandescent globes, forcing us to use CFLs, but more than 12 months after announcing the ban, still hasn't put in place a recycling scheme for CFLs.

My advice is, forget about CFLs. There is a product on the market that has superceded the CFL. LEDs, or Light Emitting Diodes are safer, contain no mercury and are up to 60% again more efficient than CFLs. They provide full spectrum light, fit most existing fittings and last up to 50,000 hours. Not just bright, they're brilliant!