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CFLs could cause cancer and worsen eye problems

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Josh

Sat Apr 23 2011, 04:13AM

Registered Member #938 Joined: Sat Aug 04 2007, 05:39AM
Location: Honokaa,HI,USA
Posts: 65

Electricity is $0.45 per kilowatt here,
I think may do LEDs, although the reliable and bright Cree ones are far from cheap.

Dr. Dark Current

Sat Apr 23 2011, 08:04AM

Registered Member #152 Joined: Sun Feb 12 2006, 03:36PM
Location: Czech Rep.
Posts: 3384

LEDs are just about as efficient as CFLs, (modern) linear fluorescent are more efficient than LEDs.

Steve Conner

Sat Apr 23 2011, 08:09AM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

I've seen early CFLs that consisted of a 4-pin tube plugging into a little electronic lump that fitted into the lamp socket. The idea was that the tube could be replaced by itself. It never caught on, though. I think the modern approach is to cost-reduce the electronics until they last no longer than the tube.

Nah

Sat Apr 23 2011, 02:40PM

Registered Member #3567 Joined: Mon Jan 03 2011, 10:49PM
Location: USA, 1960s
Posts: 260

I use a 1970-80s' 50 watt CFL here. It is as bright as 2-300 watt bulb and glows orange after it turns off.

Coherent

Sat Apr 23 2011, 03:41PM

Registered Member #1886 Joined: Sun Dec 28 2008, 02:55AM
Location:
Posts: 73

Nah wrote ...

I use a 1970-80s' 50 watt CFL here. It is as bright as 2-300 watt bulb and glows orange after it turns off.

Sounds like a MH or HPS to me.

Killa-X

Sun Apr 24 2011, 07:39AM

Registered Member #1643 Joined: Mon Aug 18 2008, 06:10PM
Location:
Posts: 1039

Well, this is what my dead bulb (that didnt explode) looks like inside. No burn marks. The only thing i noticed, the 2 green film capacitors are brownish. My guess, simple heat damage to the outer plastic skin. May get bored and schematic this whole thing for fun.

Fixed it =D

James

Sun Apr 24 2011, 06:49PM

Registered Member #3610 Joined: Thu Jan 13 2011, 03:29AM
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 506

There's a website out there with schematics for a bunch of different CFLs, they're all pretty similar. Royer oscillator with a series resonant choke.

Here I found it

klugesmith

Tue Apr 26 2011, 01:00AM

Registered Member #2099 Joined: Wed Apr 29 2009, 12:22AM
Location: Los Altos, California
Posts: 1716

3l3ctrici7y wrote ...

Toxins that stay put or are otherwise well sequestered are less of an issue as compared to those that are released slowly as the device is used, or released all at once at end-of-life or if the device is subjected to excessive mechanical stress.

I don't consider the well sequestered solid arsenic in LEDs to be as concerning as the barely contained mercury gas in CFLs. That is another point; gas vs solid. A solid is more likely to stay put, no matter what, than something that is a gas that can and will diffuse into the air you breathe if the containment is ruptured.

Agreed, but...
1. Look at all the alarm about the many pounds of lead in a CRT monitor or TV, almost all in the form of vitrified lead oxide. When people talk about sequestering high-level nuclear waste for thousands of years, often they say to start by vitrifying it.
2. If you break a CFL in a small bedroom and its Hg diffuses uniformly in the air, the concentration might reach 10x the legal limit for all-day, every-day occupational exposure.
A ratio probably similar to that when you or I use paint remover or oil paint or Bondo / fiberglass resin indoors.
And it will go away as fast as the room air is exchanged through open window or heating/ventilating system.

Ash Small

Mon Nov 28 2011, 11:39PM

Registered Member #3414 Joined: Sun Nov 14 2010, 05:05PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4245

Klugesmith wrote ...

.
.2. If you break a CFL in a small bedroom and its Hg diffuses uniformly in the air, the concentration might reach 10x the legal limit for all-day, every-day occupational exposure.
.

I know I'm 'bumping' an old thread, but I was wondering if there could be any truth in a story I heard today.

Apparently, someone trod on a CFL in bare feet and broke it, cutting his foot. and, apparently, the Hg got into the wound and it turned quite nasty.

Is this plausible?

klugesmith

Tue Nov 29 2011, 12:21AM

Registered Member #2099 Joined: Wed Apr 29 2009, 12:22AM
Location: Los Altos, California
Posts: 1716

Ash Small wrote ...
Apparently, someone trod on a CFL in bare feet and broke it, cutting his foot. and, apparently, the Hg got into the wound and it turned quite nasty.

Is this plausible?

Can you cite a reference? Snopes.com talks about the purported hazard of CFL's,

but doesn't address penetrating injury by shards of broken lamp.

It's easy to re-arrange your anecdotal report thusly:
"Apparently, someone trod on a CFL in bare feet and broke it, cutting his foot.
Later, the wound turned quite nasty."

Why do people assume that the morbidity was caused by Hg from the lamp?
After all, people's feet are always clean and sterile.
Cuts from broken glass or rusty nails never get infected with antibiotic-resistant staph!

[edit] Ash's link (below) says: "However, there is currently no credible evidence that backs up the claim that the foot injury depicted in these photographs was the result of mercury exposure." I think there is no credible evidence that the injury was related to any broken light bulb, in fact that seems unlikely from the cut's appearance. The simplest and most likely explanation is that the whole story was fabricated by someone with a political axe to grind, or by a troll.
Conventional fluorescent lamps have been around for 70 years, and contain the same materials as CFL's.
Did our parents and grandparents teach that there was a poison hazard when one of those tubes broke?

[edit] I remember when Mercurochrome, an organic Hg compound, was a popular topical antiseptic. That was probably before the term over-the-counter became popular. This reference

says the FDA never found mercurochrome to be harmful or unsafe. Just decided to pull it from the grandfathered, "Generally Recognized as Safe" category that includes, say, aspirin or milk of magnesia. No pharma company wanted to pay for new-drug safety trials, though everyone agreed that the stuff was effective.

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