How should I dispose of a fluorescent tube?

[Andrew Gabriel]

The quantity in a CFL is about 1/1000th of the amount the average person has in their body.

The phosphors are probably a more significant risk, but they aren't particularly toxic. Most pronounced effect is to slow down wound healing, so keep it out of any existing wounds, and avoid cutting yourself with the tube. Highest long term exposure to rare earths was by projectionists using carbon arc lamps, as the carbon contained rare earths which were vapourised, and then breathed in. That did cause significant occupational health issues, but from long term exposure in a form in which they could be absorbed.

[NT]

but mercury in the body is mainly locked away in fillings rather than being free to act on the body.

Do you have any links or keywords to find out more about that?

NT

[ARWadsworth]

That's another reason why I am glad I have a bunch of video cameras to catch vandals etc. I always put my bin in front of the best camera. You'd be surprised how many people look in my bin or put stuff in it. One neighbour insisted on putting a large bag of rubbish in my bin so the lid wouldn't close. In theory the rubbish collectors won't pick it up if overfull.

Here she is:

's now been kicked out by her landlord.

I have had that problem in the past. I left out the green bin (cardboard and garden cuttings) one evening and some passing idiot put a coke can in it. When the bin was due to be emptied the binmen lifted the lid, saw the can and put a warning notice on the bin about incorrect materials been in it. It would have been easier for them to remove the can and empty the bin.

Adam

[John Rumm]

What is the average content in the body? I was under the impression that a CFL for example contained anything from around half to a few mg of hg

- which would place the body content at something over 0.5kg by that ratio. IIUC the hg content of linear FLs is higher than the CFLs.

Agreed, I was trying to say the glass posses the most immediate risk[1] in my last post - perhaps my relative weightings were not apparent.

[1] I remember following this trial of blood up to the main entrance at school one day. A lad in the year below us had decided it would be a good idea to stab a cushion with a length of broken linear FL. Needless to say it fractured close to where he was holding it, and the resulting spike of glass left on the other bit sliced neatly into the inside of his wrist, and up the inside of his arm before breaking off in the wound. Left quite a good scar I seem to recall - looked like he had set about slashing one wrist.

[Andrew Gabriel]

You'll get an hour or two max of inefficient use as a cold cathode tube, before the excess power has burned away the filament support wires. The excess power at tube ends when running in cold cathode mode can melt or crack the glass, sometimes causing the tube to fall out, sometimes melting part of the fitting (and could in theory ignite nearby materials). This is why most control gear goes to some lengths to detect when the filaments are worn out and stop running the tube at that point. It's also why real cold cathode tubes run at very much lower power loading than conventional tubes (which operate their cathodes in thermionic emission mode).

[Andrew Gabriel]

They get compressed in the back of the dustcart, but I squash them anyway to get more in the wheelie bin. I fill up the recycle bin at about twice the rate of the ordinary bin, but it takes me weeks to fill them anyway, hence the thread about the chicken and the maggots and the stink.

Talking of which, the chicken went last Friday. I didn't see them taking it, but I'm picturing the dustcart going off up the road, obscured inside a cloud of flies. The bin still stunk. Cleaned it out with the pressure washer at the weekend, and it looks like you could eat your dinner of it now, but it still stinks. Must have seeped into the plastic.

[Tim Streater]

:-)

Well I avoided that thread, can't bear stinks. I take it you spent a while getting the meat off the bone? SWMBO wanted to ditch a chicken carcase and I managed to get enough (good) meat off it for another meal.

And you do wrap it up well in noospaper I take it?

In our old village you could put this sort of waste in the green bin along with garden clippings.

Re: the bin perhaps leave it out open under a hot sun (if we ever get any) might evaporate the odours.

[ARWadsworth]

Another of the jobs that I do not DIY (like ironing and window cleaning). I am happy to pay £1.50 a month to have the bin cleaned for me.

Adam

[Andrew Gabriel]

After a several years, there's almost no mercury left in a filling, but it's mostly still in the body, and is harmless as far as we know. It really needs to be converted into an organic compound or salt to be harmful, which our body doesn't seem very good at doing fortunately. Plants and some other animals are though, so eating those plants or animals which have been exposed is a more significant risk than raw mercury in our bodies. Continuous exposure at crematoriums (average 3g given off per person) was a risk to those working there, but I believe they have to scrub it from the flue gasses nowadays.

My mum was a factory inspector (up until I was born), and I read it in one of her work books many years ago. A google search turned up this:

[Bob Eager]

That's what they used to do. In spite of much protest, they phased out the bins and started using clear bags. I moaned a lot at the time, to no avail.

[Terry Casey]

But only if they have a large outflux, if there is such a word, of CFLs, etc. as it is done on a one-for-one basis.

[whisky-dave]

UI've got 3 24" and I think a 34", one got broken after it fell over, I keep having to relocated them until I go to the re-cycle centre although I'm not sure what they will tell me to do with them.

I have the same problem with that white polystyrene that breaks into those small spheres

[whisky-dave]

My vendor was the local aquarium/fish shop and associated supplies, do they have to recylce the air pumps and heaters of which I have a few I want to get rid of. ?

[Jim K]

and the UV will kill bacteria that may be producing it...

Jim K

[NT]

NT

[The Medway Handyman]

I did hear that Miele vacuum cleaners replace any machine that is faulty whilst under warranty, but don't want the old one back - because of the recycling cost. They ask you to dispose of it.

[MM]

I've now received an email from the council. They are going to get the inspection warden to pop by on his round on Thursday and pick up my old tube! I'm to leave it near the front door.

MM

[<me9]

Computational error! 1000*0.5^10-3g = 0.5g!

[Clot]

>>>>> "If you provide new EEE directly to household users/consumers you

Seriously that is dreadful. You should have shoved it in the bin. The environmental impact of a bespoke collection is far worse. Mercury was wonderful stuff as a kid, dabbing fingers in it and watching it recombine. We have gone totally OTT.

Asbestos, Radon and mercury are now unnecessary industries for waste merchants.Totally OTT. We have stopped using 1 and 3. We understand No. 2 and are going OTT on that!

[MM]

>>>>>>> "If you provide new EEE directly to household users/consumers you

It is not a bespoke collection. The district council warden comes by anyway.

Tell me, did you have to work on your Usenet moniker or did it just come to you in a flash?

Asbestos is *still* everywhere in old buildings, sheds and factories. Have you never heard of mesothelioma?

MM