Great, just great. Don’t get me wrong, I like the LED bulbs, I have several in my house. But when we get back to basics, a tungsten light bulb doesn’t require a haz-mat squad to dispose of. It’s glass, ceramic, tungsten, some thin steel, and tin solder (if ROHS). CFL bulbs and now LED bulbs are so much more eco unfriendly and when they inevitably end up in landfills, they become a source of heavy metal. We may have gained short term energy efficiency, but the long term payback may not be worth it.
LED products billed as eco-friendly contain toxic metals, study finds
UC researchers tested holiday bulbs, traffic lights and car beams
From UC Irvine:
Those light-emitting diodes marketed as safe, environmentally preferable alternatives to traditional lightbulbs actually contain lead, arsenic and a dozen other potentially hazardous substances, according to newly published research.
“LEDs are touted as the next generation of lighting. But as we try to find better products that do not deplete energy resources or contribute to global warming, we have to be vigilant about the toxicity hazards of those marketed as replacements,” said Oladele Ogunseitan, chair of UC Irvine’s Department of Population Health & Disease Prevention.
He and fellow scientists at UCI and UC Davis crunched, leached and measured the tiny, multicolored lightbulbs sold in Christmas strands; red, yellow and green traffic lights; and automobile headlights and brake lights. Their findings? Low-intensity red lights contained up to eight times the amount of lead allowed under California law, but in general, high-intensity, brighter bulbs had more contaminants than lower ones. White bulbs copntained the least lead, but had high levels of nickel.
“We find the low-intensity red LEDs exhibit significant cancer and noncancer potentials due to the high content of arsenic and lead,” the team wrote in the January 2011 issue of Environmental Science & Technology, referring to the holiday lights. Results from the larger lighting products will be published later, but according to Ogunseitan, “it’s more of the same.”
Lead, arsenic and many additional metals discovered in the bulbs or their related parts have been linked in hundreds of studies to different cancers, neurological damage, kidney disease, hypertension, skin rashes and other illnesses. The copper used in some LEDs also poses an ecological threat to fish, rivers and lakes.
Ogunseitan said that breaking a single light and breathing fumes would not automatically cause cancer, but could be a tipping point on top of chronic exposure to another carcinogen. And – noting that lead tastes sweet – he warned that small children could be harmed if they mistake the bright lights for candy.
Risks are present in all parts of the lights and at every stage during production, use and disposal, the study found. Consumers, manufacturers and first responders to accident scenes ought to be aware of this, Ogunseitan said. When bulbs break at home, residents should sweep them up with a special broom while wearing gloves and a mask, he advised. Crews dispatched to clean up car crashes or broken traffic fixtures should don protective gear and handle the material as hazardous waste. Currently, LEDs are not classified as toxic and are disposed of in regular landfills. Ogunseitan has forwarded the study results to California and federal health regulators.
He cites LEDs as a perfect example of the need to mandate product replacement testing. The diodes are widely hailed as safer than compact fluorescent bulbs, which contain dangerous mercury. But, he said, they weren’t properly tested for potential environmental health impacts before being marketed as the preferred alternative to inefficient incandescent bulbs, now being phased out under California law. A long-planned state regulation originally set to take effect Jan. 1 would have required advance testing of such replacement products. But it was opposed by industry groups, a less stringent version was substituted, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger placed the law on hold days before he left office.
“I’m frustrated, but the work continues,” said Ogunseitan, a member of the state Department of Toxic Substances Control’s Green Ribbon Science Panel. He said makers of LEDs and other items could easily reduce chemical concentrations or redesign them with truly safer materials. “Every day we don’t have a law that says you cannot replace an unsafe product with another unsafe product, we’re putting people’s lives at risk,” he said. “And it’s a preventable risk.”
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The CFL got it’s foothold due to the payment proffered from an Energy Bill.
The payment was government sanction and subsidy for GE, Sylvania and Westinghouse to move production to China.
The CFL is actually worse as a household item, because the consumer generally does not read the warning about Mercury if the light is fractured/broken, and the force used in hand-threading such bulbs in the socket is sufficient to cause failure.
Accident looking for a place to happen: Meet contamination looking for a place to happen…your home.
Oh don’t you take my light bulb away.
Dudes. The plan was always to have us freeze to death in the dark. When are you going to get that?
The “scientists” forgot to tell us how many red LEDs we would have to chew thoroughly and swallow in order to get sick from lead poisoning. Sounds like more horse processed hay for the mushrooms to me.
In Minnesota, those incandescent light bulbs are better thought of as “heat balls”. Rather efficient heating mechanisms in winter, they are. Goodness knows environmentalists aren’t considering the heating efficiency offered by the ol’ bulbs.
And people wonder why I still drive vehicles with glass headlights. “New” tech is really starting to stink.
….ok. Sure. You take 100 Ibuprofen tablets too and thats’s toxic. The printed circuit boards inside LED bulbs can contain all that stuff….in trace amounts…. You going t0 eat a tablespoon of LEDs?
Wait. What?
Except for the anode and cathode, the guts of an LED are encased in a thick layer of plastic.
What fumes?! Are they confusing LEDs with CFLs?
When it is said of mercury and lead that they are neurotoxins, this is not environmentalist hyperbole. And keep in mind that these neurotoxins would be in their vaporized form, in your home, in lights that were manufactured most likely in China. Many of these bulbs have already been known to spontaneously break, leak, or catch fire. Fire departments are also learning not to overlook these CFLs in homes:
Should try living in the UK, the good old EU banned them ages ago and now we have the dim bulbs the dim-witted EU say we should use, but hey watch this space when one breaks and a haz mat team has to come in to remove the mercury.
Teaching my kids about the history of music and the composers, we have been struck by how many of these musical genius’ lost their battle with depression. I have wondered if this is because of the use of lead as a sweetener for cheap wine. Granted, nobody made any money except Rossini and they were all in debt, but something was tipping all of these great artists into a black depression.
Whether that is the case or not, the damage to the central nervous system and the depression caused by these two metals, mercury and lead, are to be taken seriously.
I personally think it could lead to a great devaluing of homes, as the leaks and spills mount, and no one will want to take chances on bringing their tiny babies in a home potentially contaminated by these dangerous elements.
Even though by now everyone who is well informed knows that global warming is a hoax, it still makes good sense to try and preserve energyy. Namely, it costs money to make energy. The fluorscent type lights that I use do not really break down very often ad save at least 75% in energy. They just burn and burn, foreever it seems. I am in LA at the moment. Visiting from South Africa. I am puzzled that I don’t see more solar water heating (with a solar geyser). This is stupid. You can save 40% of your electricity bill just letting the sun heat your water for the geyser. Due to to a shortage of power , our (state funded) electricity company in South Africa is giving a subsidy for every installation built. This is an idea that must be implemented worldwide, as it is a good way to spend government subsidies instead of wasting it on “climate research”.
Does anyone know if halogen bulbs are a decent compromise? I’m using a few and they look like incandescents, don’t need five minutes of warming up and work in fittings on dimmer switches. There’s no electronic ballast on them and they use about half the power of an incandescent. They’re more expensive of course but since the Australian government has banned incandescents, including if you call them heat globes apparently, they seem to be the best option if you’ve got some dimmer switches. But I do wonder if they have downsides of their own.
Part of the problem is that the information is presented out of context. That is we really aren’t told the relative toxic level compared to the other products. One also has to factor in the lifespan of the product too.
A standard light bulb has a life of around 750 to 1250 hours depending on the bulb.
Assume 1,000 as the average. A CFL is rated at 10,000; however this assumes you never turn of the light. Repeated On/Off cycling will shorten the life of the CFL, but I’ve never seen any numbers on exactly how much life it would be under normal use. LED Lights don’t have a catastrophic failure, like the first two lights, so the L70 Standard applies. When the light falls to 70% of the initial light output, the life of the LED is considered ended. LED Lights have a life of around 35,000 to 50,000 hours. Also, LED lights can be turned on and off rapidly with out any problems of a shorter life.
Thus, an LED light would have the life of 35 to 50 regular light bulbs and 3.5 to 5 CFL bulbs. One would need to factor how much toxic material in one LED compared to 3.5 to 5 CFL compared to 35 to 50 regular light bulbs. I thought that regular light bulbs used lead at the base of the bulb. … or has this been changed to lead free solder?
Regular incandescent light bulbs have lead on the bottom where they screw in, I believe, solder.
In Oz we can’t buy old bulbs anymore, you can’t sell a house without an environmental rating which includes having eco lights, the new ones are dear, dim, and don’t last as long. What a great idea! What can we do next!
Henry, we do not have a shortage of any energy! Why are electricity prices so high? Simply to create profits for shareholders. There is no shortage of energy and we have absolutely no need to conserve energy apart from to save our our personal bank accounts from the rape by greedy energy companies.
I do not buy into your argument as it is flawed beyond belief.
We have pensioners in the UK that can now only afford to heat one room due to the huge increases in energy prices, another 5% added in december 2010, which was the coldest December in record.
Energy poverty is artificially created by the very same companies who spout that they are spending x amount on new green techs, ahem, they use this as a false flag to justify the raises in electricity prices.
Centrica, a French Company that owns British Gas has reported this:
Key Fundamentals Financials – Interim (28/7/2010)
Turnover £m 11,707
Pre-tax Profit £m 2,004
EPS p 25.78
DPS p 9.14
Now, do they look like they have to raise prices by 5-8%?
I think I like the opening line best:
Didn’t they frakkin’ well know what was in these things when they built them? Is there a “black box” factory out there that makes light bulbs, but nobody knew what went into them until somebody did research? They’ve discovered, through “research,” that there’s lead in these things. Now how the hell did it get there? Do you think they’ll discover that lightbulbs also contain glass? Who knew?
I like CFLs because they consume less energy – full stop. I had to shop around for bulbs that had good initial luminosity and they have performed satisfactorily. In places where I need instant brightness I stick to the good old incandescent bulbs – conservation be darned.
As for the Christmas lights, I avoid LEDs like the plague. They don’t have that warm look to them… likely because they aren’t warm. Who (besides Suzuki) wants to see cold lights on a cold night?
I hate CFLs and have stocked up on incandescants. My hunch is that true Americans are going to rebel over this nonsense about “banning” anything. Free choice and education as to hazards and efficiency is what is appropriate — and American. But what’s up with this UC Irvine research after the fact? Following your example, Anthony, I just changed out a number of lights for CREE LEDs. The light is absolutely beautiful. I’m planning to live with it.
We must protect our water supply (& not just on short timescales).
What is less known is that the “treasury of electronic circuitry” in CFLs generate radio frequency interference. Because of this they interfere with some remote control devices and with radio, especially AM. It could potentially interfere also with wireless systems such as alarms.
source
a typical smoking comment
X-10 interference comment
Here in Australia, former land of the free, we are forced to use these toxic mercury light globes by law. Many of us, it is likely, will suffer a similar fate to the composer Beethoven who died of lead poisoning. 🙁
Henry@Calvi36
So if you are worried about making the energy companies rich, why not put up your own solar geysers? England perhaps not so much, is that where you live? (because they do not have that much sunshine) but the question I asked: why have I not seen any here (in LA). Sunny California. I am puzzled about that.
Angry Exile says:
February 10, 2011 at 9:10 pm
Halogen bulbs are a type of incandescent light. They are designed so that the filament runs at a hotter temperature, thus emitting more light in the visible spectrum. Thus halogens are somewhat more efficient than your conventional incandescent bulb, but still not nearly as efficient as a CFL or LED type lamp.