this dangerous?
Energy-saving light bulbs are so dangerous that everyone must leave the room for at least 15 minutes if one falls to the floor and breaks, a Government department warned yesterday.
The startling alert came as health experts also warned that toxic mercury inside the bulbs can aggravate a range of problems including migraines and dizziness.
So the people pushing these say there's so little mercury it's not a real problem, and the other side says it's a virtual booby trap in the house.
Ain't this all fun?
5 comments:
With any other product having even trace amounts of hazardous ingredients being demonized as if it were spraying cyanide at random, it is telling that the raging tinhat enviroloons downplay the presence of dangerous amounts of an actual toxin as "too small to matter". Its not about safety or energy savings. Its about control of each and every aspect of our lives.
The mercury content is indeed too small to matter, as long as you don't break them every day or have your children clean up the spill with their tongues. There are other things in a flourescent bulb that might make it wise to stay back until the dust settles, but I'd not worry about the mercury.
And I agree, they demonize even smaller traces of hazardous ingredients whenever they aren't pushing the product - it's about control, not safety.
The Daily Mail is a silly tabloid, where accuracy and objectivity are distinguished by their absence.
This is not about safety or control. It's about eyeballs for advertisers, and possibly payoffs from incandescent bulb manufacturers. Last week they were saying that compact fluorescents caused migraines due to the flickering. Next week they will no doubt discover another hazard, such as the spiral shape of the bulb causing hypnosis or some such hooey.
I have known people who get headaches and other problems from at least some of the flourescent lamps. That's a real problem.
Kary Mullis, a deeply interesting and unconvential man who happens to be a Nobel Laureate, once related a story that at the laboratory where he worked, the chemical safety officer established protocols for cleaning up spilled sodium chloride that would have been appropriate for pure sodium, which is unstable and mildly dangerous, and chlorine, which is unstable and poisonous.
Most of us, though, are content to sweep up the table salt into a dust pan.
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