Looking for facts about fires caused by compact florescent bulbs

Bulbs.com ships CFLs UPS Ground, or did so for me in the past, in packages without any indication of hazardous cargo. I have declared them at my post office when mailing to a friend across the country for testing

- no problems, no special labels.

In most jurisdictions in the USA, residences can throw out burnt-out CFLs in regular trash, though it is preferred to take suggestions from

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- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)

Reply to
Don Klipstein
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Mostly private e-mails drawn to me by my website, what gets posted in sci.engr.lighting and here and misc.consumers and misc.consumers.frugal-living, a couple websites easy enough to find by googling CFL scorched flame, experience of entire apartment complexes that I have lived in...

- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)

Reply to
Don Klipstein

I put my shop's 4' fluorescent tube bulbs in a trash can lined with a trash bag. I then break them with a hammer or other hard object so they fit in the can. :-)

Reply to
willshak

I guess if we were to multiply by ten the number of bulbs being tossed in landfills, the mercury levels around those landfills won't rise.

Right?

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

mike wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@i13g2000prf.googlegroups.com:

once the CF bulb breaks,the mercury is released. It vaporizes at room temp. So,handling the remains is not going to contaminate you any further. the threat then is from the phosphors on the broken glass pieces getting in a cut.

If you want to ship the CF bulb,put it in a Ziploc bag,then box it for shipping.

Reply to
Jim Yanik

"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in news:hBjIi.16706$ snipped-for-privacy@news01.roc.ny:

Yes,actually,the amount of mercury in a thermometer IS a health hazard if released inside one's home.Particularly to children.

Reply to
Jim Yanik

"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in news:3_jIi.16534$ snipped-for-privacy@news02.roc.ny:

Compared to your average coal-fired electric generating plant,it's trivial.

Reply to
Jim Yanik

Uh oh. Now I need more information from you.

For every water supply affected by every landfill in America, what are the current mercury levels, and how far are they from causing this, especially if the intake of mercury-laden bulbs increases by factors of 2, 5 and 10?

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You have one year to complete this project. Good luck.

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

I hate guesses, so I googled-

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It's a green group, but I doubt they could get away with mis-information for long ;-)

I have a hundred cfl's in use from the original LOA 22w circlines to the latest 4w mini cfl's. I've had maybe eight failures and two "catastrophic", a bright flash and that was all. I marker the year installed, the backdoor 12w U tube is still running on a 1987 tube, but the 4w mini died in a year. I'm not including three 13w spirals and two 22w circs I flat out dropped (broken) over time.

I agree with Don, there are a lot of poorly built counterfeit cfl's from China at the "junk" dollar stores. (not the Dolgen and Family Dollar like chains) Even the UL, ETL, etc marks are counterfeit.

I do return bad products, even the "no returns" junk stores at least gave store credit for something else. Manufacturers are very sensitive about bad/poor products. Usually they already became aware of the problem and have generous coupon programs to buy redesigned or other products they make.

They really do want happy customers. Dad had a "lifetime guarantee" pocket lighter he bought during WWII, the manufacturer replaced it 3 times when it "wore out" during his lifetime. It pays, he also faithfully bought their other products.

Unfortunately, the high tech products / services companies haven't seen the light yet... But if we are willing to accept some of their crap, shame on us!

-larry / dallas

Reply to
larry

on 9/19/2007 11:19 PM larry said the following:

I have been using CFLs for years. They are all GEs. Looking at the bulb, I see no GE logo, but I see Made in China on all of them. None have failed so far.

Reply to
willshak

I hate em, to the core of my being I hate em, except in the outside fixtures where they last long. They make a bad humming sound, put interference on the power line, and generally give off ugly light, contain mercury, etc. Now with your fire post I hate em even more, I never really thought of that.

Reply to
RickH

The sale of mercury thermometers has now been banned in the EU.

Reply to
clot

Some waste companies in the UK now collect fluorescent lights separately from other wastes and apparently recover the mercury.

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Reply to
clot

I'm saying that the concern about mercury has been grossly over-hyped. Read earlier post!

Reply to
clot

The problem with what you're saying is that by the time a landfill is leaching too much mercury into local groundwater, it will be too late to do much about it, except perhaps to inform nearby residents that from now on, they can forget using tap water for cooking, drinking, or brushing their teeth. Remember, too, that this is America, where 54% of the population thinks environmentalists are communist homosexuals, so nothing gets done about pollution problems until it literally hits home.

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

Actually for the last few years ( in the US) all fluorescent tubes and other discharge bulbs ( unless they are the newer low mercury type, with GREEN markings), are supposed to be recycled. At my job we use many thousand a year, and yes, we do recycle all the non low mercury ones, we put them in special containers and then they are picked up for mercury recovery..the hazardous waste company we use for this is Safety clean. I don't pay the bill but I understand it's actually quite expensive though, unfortunately.

Reply to
Mike S.

Supposed to be, but if my locale is any indication, those bulbs won't be recycled for a very long time. The county's solid waste facility will accept them if residents drop them off, but none of the trash haulers have a program in place to handle them separately. According to a radio interview a few months back, pretty much nobody drives across the county to drop off light bulbs.

Reply to
JoeSpareBedroom

I appreciate what you are saying. I'm all for minimising materials going into landfills - it's part of my professional life. I'm familiar with the problems that old landfills have caused, am aware of the Superfund program and also the costs! I have visited one such east of LA.

Modern landfills are designed to avoid groundwater problems and the leachates are collected and treated prior to being discharged to watercourses. However, I do believe we should reduce our dependence upon them and find better solutions - one such is incineration of organic fractions utilising the heat and power, but just watch the NIMBYs come out to play if one is proposed in the neighbourhood!

Reply to
clot

Someone asked. I told my story. Go troll elsewhere.

Reply to
mike

"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in news:n3uIi.16723$ snipped-for-privacy@news01.roc.ny:

How does mercury leach -into groundwater? (and what form does it take?) Doesn't it combine with other elements in the soil? ISTR that fish pick up mercury from eating bottom stuff,not from water intake.

Reply to
Jim Yanik

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