It is their flicker rate.

For me this means that if I stay at a hotel, I now need to bring my own task light.

If I go to a restaurant, someone in my party usually unscrews the light in the booth for me. If not, by the end of the meal I would be very ill (my option is to just stay home all the time, and besides being highly antisocial, it is just no fun to be forced to do that due to people’s new love of fluorescent light.)

I view the phasing out of incandescent bulbs with much trepidation.

Yet, our society shuns electric cars and other energy and environmental saving practices.

The bulbs must get good PR.

Mercury can accumulate in any of the organs and tissues of the body and cause a great deal of damage.

http://www.holistichelp.net/blog/mercury-poisoning-and-candida-overgrowth/

http://www.holistichelp.net/blog/autism-and-candida-yeast-overgrowth/

I would also side with the experts who say that there is no safe level of mercury. It should not be in the human body in any amount.

Breathing vapourised metallic mercury seems to be more hazardous than actually swallowing some as it more readily gets absorbed by the body.

“When you breathe in mercury vapors, however, most (about 80%) of the mercury enters your bloodstream directly from your lungs, and then rapidly goes to other parts of your body, including the brain and kidneys. Once in your body, metallic mercury can stay for weeks or months. When metallic mercury enters the brain, it is readily converted to an inorganic form and is ‘trapped’ in the brain for a long time.”

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/phs46.html

Just for clarification

1 milligram = 1,000 micrograms

Therefore each bulb contains between 3000-5000 micrograms. That’s way out of the safe zone.

The safe level is only a (few) micrograms.

Thanks for the additional info. Your site has lots of good info too, so I encourage others to visit the Halogenica site.

However, I must say that I disagree that the risk of breaking a bulb is small and the amount of mercury is not small.

I drop things all the time, so that’s one common risk. Then anyone with children and pets know that knocking over lamps is a common occurrence. The elderly or disabled also have trouble with holding onto to things. Then there’s the fact that people are reporting they break easily in the socket.

Then as Professor Hui told us the safe level of mercury for the human body is only a few micrograms and each bulb contains 3-5 milligrams. That’s way over the safe limit. Then there are other experts that will tell us there is no safe level at all of mercury.

So I would say it is definitely prudent to avoid them.

Producing a mercury-free CFL does not seem to be possible as the mercury is needed in chemical process to produce fluorescent light.

The mercury-free alternatives for home use are:

* Incandescent
* Halogen
* LED

* Incandescent bulbs give the most human-friendly light for those who are sensitive and prefer quality before quantity. Will be phased out, as you say, unless enough people put their foot down about this banning craze.

* Halogen is an improved incandescent bulb that costs a little more but lasts twice as long or more and give a top quality, sunny warm-white light. Come in many varieties from little 12V spotlights, floodlight minitubes to energy savers in retrofit bulbs which can be used in standard light fittings. The spotlight version gets very hot and glaring so not always optimal with children unless used in recessed ceiling light fittings. Most halogen lamps are also under threat and will be phased out in Europe and probably in other parts of the world too unless people react in time.

* LEDs are still under development and don’t have the same light quality as the other two but more quantity and last very long. Very expensive but will probably get more affordable with time.

I think people should be left with a choice which type of light they want to use, since it depends on the situation which type is most appropriate. In cooler climates, for example, the heat from incandescent bulbs will keep heating bills down, while they may be inappropriate in warmer climates where excess heat is a problem rather than an asset.

On my website you can sign a petition to keep the bulb, and read more about why CFLs give a poor light, actually don’t save much at all and just constitute an environmental hazard if not recycled correctly.

Green regards from Halogenica