It is time for saving lights without dangerous mercury
Tomorrow in the countries of the European Union there will hold good a ban on selling classic bulbs of an output of 40 watts and less. The selling of classic bulbs of a higher output was on the basis of EU order finished even in the previous years.
Not from 1st September we will have a reason to a complete satisfaction. Classic bulbs have been actually replaced by compact fluorescent lamps for the most part on the market. And these contain dangerous mercury. It poses danger for the environment and for human health.
That is why scientists from Fraunhofer Wilhelm Klauditz institute in Germany warned some time ago that CFL bulbs pose a health hazard especially for children and the pregnant. During the tests they found out that the mercury concentration in the air after a fluorescent lamp breaking up exceeds the permitted limits up to twenty times. Other doctors point out that fluorescent lamps can cause a rash at sensitive patients.
In addition, experience from the first years of CFL bulbs using have shown that the saving effect is smaller than it was originally supposed. Their lifespan is shorter than the original estimations stated. And what is more, The Institution of Engineering and Technology, UK has found out that CFL bulbs loose up to 40 per cent of their luminosity after several years of being used.
European Wildlife Society therefore has sent a letter to Günther Oettinger, European Commissioner for Energy, and to Janez Potočnik, European Commissioner for the Environment, in which we asked them to declare a ban on selling and producing of light sources containing mercury in the EU countries by the end of the year 2014.
“At present there are enough safe alternatives of saving light sources which do not contain any dangerous mercury on the market,“ stated to the proposal Dalibor Dostál, the director of the European Wildlife conservation organisation. LED lights are an alternative, for example. Although their price is higher than the price of CFL bulbs, but after putting a mass production into practice, it could fall sharply.
An example can be a branch of television screens. There the industry managed very quickly to replace the first generation of LCD displays containing dangerous mercury by greatly more saving LED displays which do not contain mercury. Their price is today much lower than the price of classic LCD displays.
Mercury is a very dangerous substance. When being let out into the environment mercury poses a serious risk. It is able to travel long distances and to contaminate water and soil even thousands of kilometres far from the source of pollution. It poses a risk mainly for human nerve system.
But in fact only a small part of CFL bulbs is recycled after their lifespan is finished. For example, from the data for the Czech Republic it emerges that 60 per cent of CFL bulbs containing mercury do not go through recycling and they end up in common waste where they can contaminate the environment.
