CFL Mercury, The Hidden Home-buying Hazard

Compact fluorescent light bulbs, those spiral bulbs that give off the same amount of light as conventional incandescent tungsten bulbs for a fraction of the energy-cost, are great. In the long run, they can lower your energy bills. Though they’re somewhat less efficient than tubular fluorescent bulbs found in office buildings and schools, because compact fluorescents fit into standard light fixtures the associated convenience outweighs the loss, and CFL bulbs have become almost ubiquitous in homes.

CFL Drawbacks And Options

Some of the drawbacks with CFLs are:

• They take a while to warm up and emit light at their full intensity
• Sometimes they flicker on activation
• Most compact fluorescent bulbs are not dimmable
• And most CFLs emit light with a color balance to which we are not accustomed

Dimmable CFLs are available at additional cost, however, as are bulbs with flicker-free electronic (as opposed to cheaper magnetic) ballasts. And you can find full spectrum and high definition bulbs that, though less efficient than standard CFLs, can actually emit light closer to daylight than incandescent bulbs. Daylight CFLs should have a color temperature rating printed on the packaging — the higher the color temperature, the closer the bulb will approximate daylight. Look for color temperatures of at least 5000 K. That’s “K” for “Kelvin”, a standard unit of temperature used by scientists. Daylight fluorescents will also be more expensive, but do make reading easier, they don’t make you feel queasy as some fluorescents (most notably the tubes that hum and give a greenish cast) do, and may alleviate symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder (aka, “SAD”).

How Do CFLs Work

All fluorescent lamps are gas discharge lamps. These lamps contain mercury vapor, through which electricity is sent. Electrons in the mercury are energized, rise to higher energized states, and drop to lower energized states, releasing photons (packets of light) in the process.

In short, electrifying the inside of the lamp causes the mercury vapor to glow. In fluorescent lamps, this glow is in the ultraviolet, non-visible, end of the spectrum. In order to convert the ultraviolet light into visible light, the inner surface of fluorescent lamps is coated with fluorescent materials that absorb ultraviolet light and give off visible light.

CFL Mercury, The Hidden Hazard

Mercury is a hazardous element. It’s a heavy metal that, with prolonged exposure, can cause problems in brain function and development. Like lead, you need to handle mercury carefully and limit your and your children’s exposure to it.

Typical CFLs contain less than 6mg of mercury, an amount that does not pose any grave threat should the bulb break. The mercury, however is in vapor form, and so can be easily breathed in. Mercury also accumulates in your body — it is not easily eliminated — so repeated CFL breakages and repeated mercury exposure can indeed cause serious problems. So limiting mercury exposure and cleaning up properly after breaking a compact fluorescent bulb is a good idea.

Immediate precautions to take upon breakage are:

• Evacuate the room in which the breakage occurred, and avoid the breakage area on the way out.
• Open a window.
• If you have forced-air heating or A/C, turn it off
• Stay out of the room for at least fifteen minutes

This plan allows the mercury vapor to condense and settle to the ground.

If the bulb broke on a hard surface like a hardwood floor or linoleum, do NOT use a vacuum cleaner of broom to clean up. Instead, follow these steps:

• Use a couple of pieces of card stock or thin cardboard (no corrugated) to scoop up the debris (the glass fragments and as much of the powder as possible) and place it into a sealable freezer bag or a glass jar with a metal lid
• Pick up the remaining glass fragments and powder with duct tape. The used tape should be disposed of in the bag or jar, along with the bulb debris
• Wipe down the breakage area with damp paper towels. Put the used paper towels in the jar or bag along with the tape and the rest of the defunct bulb

If the bulb broke on a rug or carpeting, again, do NOT vacuum — hold off. Instead, pick up as much of the debris as possible and place into a sealable bag or glass jar with metal lid. Wash your hands immediately after you’ve finished. Again, use duct tape to pick up as much of the remaining powder and fragments of glass as possible and place into the container with the rest of the debris.

At this point, you can vacuum the area, but you should dispose of the vacuum cleaner bag as you dispose of the CFL bulb debris. For bagless vacuums, empty the canister into a sealable plastic bag or glass jar and wipe down the inside of the canister with damp paper towels.

Check with your local authorities on how you should dispose of hazardous materials and fluorescent bulbs — sealed in plastic bags or in glass jars, the mercury is only temporarily contained. The materials should be removed from your regular living area as soon as possible.

Remember to wash your hands before doing anything else. A full-blown shower to decontaminate yourself wouldn’t be a bad idea.

Over the next two months or so, turn off forced-air heating/AC and open the windows whenever you vacuum the area.

The state of Maine has more good information about compact fluorescent bulb cleanup.

One precaution you can take is to seek out safer CFLs that use mercury amalgam rather than pure mercury. Should one of these bulbs break, your risk of contamination is greatly reduced because amalgam is more inert than pure mercury.

LEDs, Alternatives To CFLs?

Light emitting diodes have been around since before my parents got their first calculator, and they can produce almost any color light for a fraction of the energy-cost of a fluorescent lamp. LEDs don’t hum, flicker, take time to warm up, or contain mercury. The lifetime of LED lamps is also supposed to be significantly longer than fluorescent lamps.

So, why are we still messing with CFLs? Three reasons: LED lamps cost significantly more; most are available only for specialized fixtures; and lack of availability.

So far, I have bought LED lamps and achieved mixed results. Despite their long-life rating, three out the six LED night lights I bought burnt out after only a few months, far short of their long-life rating. I blame defects in manufacture, but these things need to be ironed out especially if you’re spending between six and twenty dollars for a silly night light.

My luck with portable LED reading lamps has been better. The color balance is good for reading and they have so far outlasted my three defective night lights.

I have also recently bought an LED flood lamp to replace a compact fluorescent flood for my basement office, to see how it works. At forty dollars a pop, I don’t know if this will be worth it …

What may be worth it, however, is LED Christmas lighting. I saw these for sale recently at my local Costco, and I think they’re worth trying out.

Buying A Home In The Age Of CFLs

While knowing how to dispose of compact fluorescent bulbs and cleaning up after the occasional breakage will limit your and your family’s exposure to mercury to acceptable levels, what happens when you move to a new house? How do you know the previous occupants were as meticulous as you?

Unfortunately, mercury detection is not yet a standard part of the home inspector’s toolkit. Before you commit to buying the house, however, you can identify the most likely places for a CFL breakage to occur (by night tables, beneath ceiling fixtures, near garbage cans, etc.), and use a mercury test kit to assess the level of contamination.