Nowadays, energy-saving lamps are increasingly replacing the traditional incandescent light bulbs, and become the most environmentally friendly lighting choice. To achieve their emission reduction targets, the EU is to phase out traditional incandescent that has been used for 120 years. People are mandatory to replace their low-efficiency light bulbs with energy-saving lamps. In the UK, compact fluorescent (CFL) is the most common energy-saving lamps. Germany, however, warns the public based on a new study: the mercury released by broken energy saving lamps will be a risk to health, especially for infants and young children and pregnant women. While, LED lights, traditional incandescents, and halogen light bulbs will not cause such problems when broken, because they do not contain mercury.
German Federal Environment Agency claimed that, according to the new research, the mercury toxity of broken energy-saving lamps can be 20 times excess of interior safty guidelines’ standards. GFEA’s Board Secretary said that the presence of mercury in CFL energy-saving lamps is a major defect, therefore, new technologies are need to be adopted as soon as possible to prevent mercury pollution. The advantage of 80% energy saving and safty of CFLs ought to be synchronous development. A council spokesman said that children and pregnant women should stay away from broken CFLs. In those places with children and pregnant women activities, protection lampshades are suggested to be installed to prevent mercury release by broken energy-saving lamps.
However, the British government insisted that the mercury risks of energy-saving lamps is over-concerned. Broken CFL bulb mercury hazard in fact is some occasional cases, not a big deal. UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs spokesman claimed that, the mercury containing in the CFL energy saving light bulbs is insufficient of harming the surrounding populations.
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