Mercury leaks found as new bulbs break

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Mercury leaks found as new bulbs break

Energy benefits of fluorescents may outweigh risk

 

_http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/02/26/mercury_leaks_found_as_new\

_bulbs_break/_

(http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/02/26/mercury_leaks_found_as_new\

_bulbs_break/)

By Beth Daley

 

Globe Staff / February 26, 2008

 

 

Compact fluorescent lamps - those spiral, energy-efficient bulbs popular as

a device to combat global warming - can pose a small risk of mercury

poisoning to infants, young children, and pregnant women if they break, two

reports

concluded yesterday.

But the reports, issued by the state of Maine and the Vermont-based Mercury

Policy Project, urged homeowners to keep using compact fluorescents because

their energy-saving benefits far outweigh the risk posed by mercury released

from a broken lamp.

They said most danger could be avoided if people exercised common-sense

caution, such as not using compact fluorescents in table lamps that could be

knocked over by children or pets and properly cleaning up broken bulbs.

The US Environmental Protection Agency and the states of Massachusetts and

Vermont said yesterday that, based on the Maine study, they are revising their

recommendations for where to use compact fluorescents in a home and how to

clean up when one breaks.

" Using compact fluorescent bulbs is still the brightest idea out there, "

said Michael Bender, director of the Mercury Policy Project, a nonprofit

organization that works to eliminate mercury use. " The message is: People should

not

be afraid but informed and prepared and learn how to dispose of them

properly. "

The two reports constitute one of the most comprehensive examinations of the

dangers posed by the lights, which use about 1 percent of the amount of

mercury found in old thermometers.

Mercury is needed for the lamps to produce light, and there are no known

substitutes. No mercury is emitted when compact fluorescents are burned, but a

small amount is vaporized when they break, which can happen if people screw

them in holding the glass instead of the base or drop them.

Mercury is a naturally occurring metal that accumulates in the body and can

harm the nervous system of a fetus or young child if ingested in sufficient

quantity.

For the Maine study, researchers shattered 65 compact fluorescents to test

air quality and cleanup methods. They found that, in many cases, immediately

after the bulb was broken - and sometimes even after a cleanup was attempted -

levels of mercury vapor exceeded federal guidelines for chronic exposure by

as much as 100 times.

There is no federal guideline for acute exposure. Some states, including

Maine, use the chronic exposure level as their overall standard, while others,

such as California, have chosen higher levels for acute exposure. Still, the

mercury vapor released by the bulbs in the Maine study exceeded even those

higher levels.

" We found some very high levels [of mercury] even after we tried a number of

cleanup techniques, " said Mark Hyland, director of Maine's Bureau of

Remediation and Waste Management. He said levels were the lowest if the room

was

well ventilated after breakage.