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Mercury mop-up
12th July 2008
New material dampens the danger of mercury in energy efficient bulbs
Light on energy, but pose hazards to the nervous system
There’s no doubt that fluorescent bulbs are energy-efficient – they use about 75-per-cent less energy than incandescent bulbs and last 10 times longer.
The catch is: Fluorescents contain mercury, which is toxic to the nervous system and causes brain damage. One in six American babies are born with mercury levels exceeding the recommended level, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (Canadian stats are not available). Broken bulbs are a hazard in the home, and can also leach mercury into the environment from landfill sites.
Researchers at Brown University have developed a new material, a kind of cloth laced with nanoparticles of selenium, which would absorb the mercury from broken bulbs. It could be used in packaging for the bulbs and in materials for cleanup. They reported their findings last week in Environmental Science and Technology online.
The findings are important because fluorescent use will soon skyrocket. Australia, Canada and Britain will ban incandescents within the next six years, and even U.S. President George W. Bush signed a ban, effective in 2014.
Published in The Green Report in The Globe and Mail
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