More Mercury Misery - from Bulbs to Teeth
Monday, 19. January 2009, 10:22:12
After a couple of days in good geologists company with evening dinners and visits to a limestone cave and a sandstone quarry, or was it the other way round, I am now back to normal - and time enough to read some mercury news from Scandinavia. News that reached my eyes after I had written the post on Mercury Pollution and the Mercury Geochemical Cycle .
First the bad news.
Energy saving light aka compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) or compact fluorescent light or less commonly as a compact fluorescent tube (CFT) is quite efficiently saving energy all right. These bulbs have however created a new serious problem - the bulbs contain small amounts of mercury.
For energy saving reasons many countries are now banning the use of “traditional” incandescent light bulbs (high-energy bulbs) in favour of more energy-efficient lighting like the low-energy CFL bulbs. Wikipedia has a list of the countries concerned. In December 2008 the member states of the EU agreed to a phasing out of incandescent light bulbs by 2012.
The amounts of mercury vapour inside the glass tubing of CFLs average 4.0 mg per bulb (according to EU rules they are allowed to contain up to 0.5 mg), and it is a concern for landfills and waste incinerators where the mercury from lamps is released and contributes to air and water pollution. I have to add at this stage that in areas powered by coal, CFLs end up saving on mercury emissions versus incandescent bulbs, because coal releases a lot of mercury as it is burned - and I may of course also add that the light from incandescent bulbs may cause (skin) cancer. Nothing is as simple as it looks like.
Energy saving bulbs will break before they get to the landfill. They'll break in containers, or they'll break in a dumpster or they'll break in the trucks. In many regions it is not allowed to put CFL bulbs in the trash. They should be sorted out and collected for recycling.
Sorted waste collection is the rule in Denmark but nevertheless an estimated 2 million CFL bulbs per annum end up in incineration plants where the mercury is emitted to the atmosphere. With only about 5.5 million inhabitants I consider that a lot, or rather much too much. In Sweden about 8-10 kg mercury from CFL bulbs are thrown into the garbage bin each year.
And now the good news.
In Sweden the government has banned all use of mercury (as from 1 June 2009). The ban prohibits products containing the heavy metal from being brought to market in Sweden. The prohibition also means mercury can no longer be used in manufacturing or dentistry. The Swedish dentists may no longer fill it into Swedish teeth as dental amalgam. Dental amalgam is an alloy of a number of metals, mainly silver, tin and mercury. The decision makes Sweden, along with Norway, the country with the most stringent restrictions on mercury. Mercury waste, of which there is roughly 1,400 tons, will be shipped to Germany, the government has decided (poor Germans!).
As Sweden, like Denmark, is a member of the EU, I am not quite sure what is going to happen with energy saving bulbs in Sweden? Although EU has banned use of mercury in electric and electronic products, low-energy bulbs are not included in this ban! I know, however (of course), that Sweden wants to see them banned.
In Swedish:
• http://www.svd.se/nyheter/inrikes/artikel_2316491.svd
• http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/isidorpub/PrinterFriendlyArticle.asp?Artikel=2564374&ProgramID=83
First the bad news.
Energy saving light aka compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) or compact fluorescent light or less commonly as a compact fluorescent tube (CFT) is quite efficiently saving energy all right. These bulbs have however created a new serious problem - the bulbs contain small amounts of mercury. For energy saving reasons many countries are now banning the use of “traditional” incandescent light bulbs (high-energy bulbs) in favour of more energy-efficient lighting like the low-energy CFL bulbs. Wikipedia has a list of the countries concerned. In December 2008 the member states of the EU agreed to a phasing out of incandescent light bulbs by 2012.
The amounts of mercury vapour inside the glass tubing of CFLs average 4.0 mg per bulb (according to EU rules they are allowed to contain up to 0.5 mg), and it is a concern for landfills and waste incinerators where the mercury from lamps is released and contributes to air and water pollution. I have to add at this stage that in areas powered by coal, CFLs end up saving on mercury emissions versus incandescent bulbs, because coal releases a lot of mercury as it is burned - and I may of course also add that the light from incandescent bulbs may cause (skin) cancer. Nothing is as simple as it looks like.
Energy saving bulbs will break before they get to the landfill. They'll break in containers, or they'll break in a dumpster or they'll break in the trucks. In many regions it is not allowed to put CFL bulbs in the trash. They should be sorted out and collected for recycling.
Sorted waste collection is the rule in Denmark but nevertheless an estimated 2 million CFL bulbs per annum end up in incineration plants where the mercury is emitted to the atmosphere. With only about 5.5 million inhabitants I consider that a lot, or rather much too much. In Sweden about 8-10 kg mercury from CFL bulbs are thrown into the garbage bin each year.
And now the good news.
In Sweden the government has banned all use of mercury (as from 1 June 2009). The ban prohibits products containing the heavy metal from being brought to market in Sweden. The prohibition also means mercury can no longer be used in manufacturing or dentistry. The Swedish dentists may no longer fill it into Swedish teeth as dental amalgam. Dental amalgam is an alloy of a number of metals, mainly silver, tin and mercury. The decision makes Sweden, along with Norway, the country with the most stringent restrictions on mercury. Mercury waste, of which there is roughly 1,400 tons, will be shipped to Germany, the government has decided (poor Germans!).
As Sweden, like Denmark, is a member of the EU, I am not quite sure what is going to happen with energy saving bulbs in Sweden? Although EU has banned use of mercury in electric and electronic products, low-energy bulbs are not included in this ban! I know, however (of course), that Sweden wants to see them banned.
In Swedish:
• http://www.svd.se/nyheter/inrikes/artikel_2316491.svd
• http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/isidorpub/PrinterFriendlyArticle.asp?Artikel=2564374&ProgramID=83
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