[Announce] Mercury and Other Toxins

[James Travers]

Sheree,
   
  Andy had not posted his message to you that you referred to in your message on this board, so we are not aware of his message's content, aside from what you've quoted.
   
  Mercury is one of the most dangerous chemicals known that has adverse effects upon human health and is listed as one of those in the top ten per cent of such chemicals. It is also known as a heavy metal, a term common to all dangerous metals that are bio-accumlative. 
   
  While four milligrams may seem like a minuscule amount, what must be considered is the many millions of fluorescent lamps that are produced every year eventually wind up in landfills. This you are acutely aware of, I am sure.
   
  Four milligrams is 4/1000 of a gram. (A gram is 4/100 of an ounce) 
   
  Bearing in mind these figures, it takes only 250 fluorescent bulbs to equal one gram of mercury.  (250 x 4 = 1000)
   
  To acheive an ounce of mercury one would need to gather 6,250 fluorescent lamps.  (25 x 250 = 6,250) 
   
  The toxic effects from mercury through aspiration, absortion or ingestion are measured in hundredths or thousandths of a milligram.
   
  For example, the figure given for toxicity from mercury inhalation is reported as being 0.025 mg per cubic meter of air.
   
  What this means is that the common fluorescent bulb has 160 times the lowest recorded figure known to cause adverse health effects in humans.
   
  When you consider that the Rapp Road Landfill has been operating since 1969, for the past 38 years, and has collected probably at least a few hundred thousand fluorescent lamps, you can only imagine how many pounds of mercury is now located there. 
   
  Of course, a great quantity of that mercury has continually been being released into the air we breath through it's aerosolization, having been heated by the oxidization caused by the decomposing waste. Through the normal chemical reactions ocurring within the landfill, the mercury aften combines with other chemicals and changes its form into other equally toxic substances. Some of these are also aerosolized and released into the atmosphere.
   
  For more on mercury and other toxics, please see:
   
  http://www.scorecard.org/chemical-profiles/text-search.tcl?query_string=mercury
   
  Jim Travers
   
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Sheree <sheree at nycap.rr.com> wrote:
          So how to recycle long fluorescents (tubes) ...  possibility: http://www.lamprecycle.org/
  and
  http://earth911.org/search-recycle?what=fluorescent+light+tubes&where=12210&max_distance=25&goRecycle=%3CSPAN+class%3Dreplace+tabIndex%3D-1%3EGo%3C%2FSPAN%3E
   
  craig's list has someone who will take light bulbs, the round type, to keep them from a landfill, but not our tubular types.
   
  interesting what Andy had written:
   
   maybe 4 milligrams (of mercury) at the most in modern long florescent bulbs. 

Actually, the low levels of mercury in modern bulbs are their leading cause of failure these days -- the mercury over time absorbs into the phosphorous, glass, and other parts of the bulb, meaning that bulbs won't start anymore. New CFLs and long florescent bulbs simply do not last as long as the ones from the 1960s -- many of which still work.
Then again, rapid start is both more energy efficient and easier on bulbs then the old warm start of the 1960s -- for those switched on and off regularly.
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