Cfl Light Bulbs Hazards
Unborn and young children elderly and those with weakened health are particularly vulnerable.
Cfl light bulbs hazards. Cfls are marketed as safe and don t pose any health risks as long as the glass remains intact. When a bulb breaks in your home some of this mercury may be released as mercury vapor. No other element has proved as efficient. In a nutshell healthy cfl bulbs may emit a bit of smoke and smell and have burnt looking bases when they die but that s as it should be there s no fire danger to any of that and indeed the.
The energy efficiency of cfls may be significant but unlike traditional light bulbs there is a hidden danger sealed inside each little bulb that requires special handling and disposal. When a bulb breaks in your home some of this mercury may be released as mercury vapor. Cfl bulbs are dangerous because of ultraviolet radiation leakage. Mercury a potent developmental neurotoxin that can damage the brain liver kidneys and central nervous system.
Breaking a single cfl bulb in a room can result in mercury vapor levels 300 times in excess of what the epa has established as safe for prolonged exposure. The phosphor coating is easily damaged and possibly dangerous amounts of uv are being emitted in addition to the potential. Serious health effects are associated with mercury exposure. But lab experiments have shown that cfls do emit some uv sometimes enough to damage skin cells placed directly under them.
Cfls and the other light bulbs listed above contain a small amount of mercury sealed within the glass tubing. All types of fluorescent bulbs contain mercury vapor which emits ultraviolet uv rays when exposed to an electric current. The take home message is that cfl bulbs are fragile mironava says. Two readers pointed with alarm to a 2012 study by stony brook university researchers which found that most cfl bulbs have defects.
Cfls contain mercury a potentially dangerous substance that escapes from broken cfls into the immediate surroundings and therefore the breakage of a cfl bulb should be handled by carefully. As effective as it is at enabling white light however mercury sometimes called.