How much Mercury is in Compact Fluorescent (CFL) bulbs, watch batteries, and coal-fired power plants?
In Brennn10’s Compact Fluorescent Instructable there was a short discussion about the amount of mercury contained in CFL bulbs. The same topic came up in a mailing list I read, and there was some interesting analysis worth sharing. Statement: The Stranger (the Seattle weekly) has a column called “Dear Science” where the typically quite intelligent author argued that CFL bulbs weren’t all that “better” for the environment because inevitable improper disposal put more mercury-n-shit into the environment. So unless you got all your power from a mercury spewing coal plant, you shouldn’t use CFL’s . And Seattle, getting a majority of it’s power from hydro, shouldn’t use CFL’s. This was called into question for being selective analysis that encourages an attitude of “there’s not currently a solution, so keep doing what you’re doing”, and elicited the following response: Just so I can bore everyone with what I think is the current level of knowledge about mercury and CFLs, here’s some of the
Related Questions
- Compact fluorescent lamps contain mercury, a hazardous material, incandescent bulbs do not. If more compact fluorescent lamps are used, does it not mean more mercury pollution in the EU?
- How much Mercury is in Compact Fluorescent (CFL) bulbs, watch batteries, and coal-fired power plants?
- Why choose ENERGY STAR qualified compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs?
