Nataku
01-29-09, 07:11 PM
I'm really beginning to get tired of all the uneducated Chicken Littles screaming about the mercury content of CFLs.
Allow me to educate you...
(stolen from another thread.)
“A CFL containing 5 mg of mercury breaks in your child’s bedroom that has a volume of about 25 m3 (which corresponds to a medium sized bedroom). The entire 5 mg of mercury vaporizes immediately (an unlikely occurrence), resulting in an airborne mercury concentration in this room of 0.2 mg/m3. This concentration will decrease with time, as air in the room leaves and is replaced by air from outside or from a different room. As a result, concentrations of mercury in the room will likely approach zero after about an hour or so. Under these relatively conservative assumptions, this level and duration of mercury exposure is not likely to be dangerous, as it is lower than the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standard of 0.05 mg/m3 of metallic mercury vapor averaged over eight hours. [To equate these values, we could estimate the average indoor airborne mercury concentration for 8 hours, beginning post-spill at an estimated starting value of 0.2 mg/m3 and decreasing from there. If one assumes the the air exchanges completely in one hour (a fairly standard assumption), then the 8-hour average concentration would be 0.025 mg/m3.]”
Also consider the fact that we've been using florescent bulbs in kitchens and work places for the last 25-30 years.
So, please stop listening to the uneducated morons on the news screaming that the sky is falling. They do that because it brings in better ratings.
THINK FOR YOURSELF! And if you are not, at LEAST let someone who is educated think for you.
Because I swear if I hear one more person say that compact florescent bulbs are not safe because of the mercury I'm going to round all of you up and stick you in concentration camps for being a detriment to the advancement of technology. :sniper:
Thank you for your time.
/rant
Allow me to educate you...
(stolen from another thread.)
“A CFL containing 5 mg of mercury breaks in your child’s bedroom that has a volume of about 25 m3 (which corresponds to a medium sized bedroom). The entire 5 mg of mercury vaporizes immediately (an unlikely occurrence), resulting in an airborne mercury concentration in this room of 0.2 mg/m3. This concentration will decrease with time, as air in the room leaves and is replaced by air from outside or from a different room. As a result, concentrations of mercury in the room will likely approach zero after about an hour or so. Under these relatively conservative assumptions, this level and duration of mercury exposure is not likely to be dangerous, as it is lower than the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standard of 0.05 mg/m3 of metallic mercury vapor averaged over eight hours. [To equate these values, we could estimate the average indoor airborne mercury concentration for 8 hours, beginning post-spill at an estimated starting value of 0.2 mg/m3 and decreasing from there. If one assumes the the air exchanges completely in one hour (a fairly standard assumption), then the 8-hour average concentration would be 0.025 mg/m3.]”
Also consider the fact that we've been using florescent bulbs in kitchens and work places for the last 25-30 years.
So, please stop listening to the uneducated morons on the news screaming that the sky is falling. They do that because it brings in better ratings.
THINK FOR YOURSELF! And if you are not, at LEAST let someone who is educated think for you.
Because I swear if I hear one more person say that compact florescent bulbs are not safe because of the mercury I'm going to round all of you up and stick you in concentration camps for being a detriment to the advancement of technology. :sniper:
Thank you for your time.
/rant