A CNSNews.com article today screams: “Expert Warns of Health Risks Associated With New Light Bulb Technology.” The report forwards claims made by “lighting expert” Howard Brandston, who testified before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources yesterday in favor of a bill that would repeal light bulb efficiency standards set by Congress and President Bush in 2007. Brandston asserts that “this 2007 light bulb standard brings a deadly poison into every residence in our nation.”

To begin with, Brandston is a lighting designer, not a health professional or a scientist. So the headline saying “Expert Warns of Health Risks” is a tad misleading. The article reports:

In his testimony, Branston claimed that parts of the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act serve as a “de-facto ban on traditional incandescent light bulbs” and that compact florescent light bulbs, or CFLs -- the most popular alternative to incandescent bulbs (ordinary light bulbs) -- pose a risk to public health and safety.

“The compact fluorescent lamp contains mercury,” said Branston. “One gram of mercury will pollute a two acre pond. This 2007 light bulb standard brings a deadly poison into every residence in our nation.

[...]

”Why don't we know that when you throw one of those CFLs in the trash the mercury changes to methyl mercury, which is a deadly poison -- which if it gets into our water supply will be a danger?"

One thing to keep in mind is that these efficiency standards do not require that anyone purchase CFLs. As we've noted, the legislation enacted in 2007 has spurred manufacturers to develop numerous alternatives to the century old technology used by the incandescent lamp.

But here are the facts on mercury in CFLs that media outlets should keep in mind:

Underwriters Laboratories, an independent product safety organization that has tested CFLs, says: “CFLs contain a small amount of mercury sealed within the glass tubing - approximately 5 milligrams - a hundred times less mercury than found in a single old-style glass thermometer. No mercury is released when the lamps are intact or in use and if disposed of properly, mercury in CFLs shouldn't be a safety hazard.”

Several consumer advocate groups, including the publisher of Consumer Reports, stated in a March 9 letter that “it is important to note that CFLs save between 2 and 10 times more mercury from the environment than is used in the bulb because their efficiency avoids mercury pollution that would otherwise be emitted from coal-fired power plants.” Energy Star, a program of the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy explains:

EPA estimates the U.S. is responsible for the release of 103 metric tons of mercury emissions each year. More than half of these emissions come from coal-fired electrical power. Mercury released into the air is the main way that mercury gets into water and bio-accumulates in fish. (Eating fish contaminated with mercury is the main way for humans to be exposed.)

CFLs contain a very small amount of mercury sealed within the glass tubing - an average of 4 milligrams. Because of this, EPA recommends that consumers take advantage of available local recycling options for CFLs. But if the CFL is not recycled and it ends up in a landfill, EPA estimates that about 11% of the mercury in the CFL is released into air or water, assuming the light bulb is broken. This is because most mercury vapor inside fluorescent light bulbs becomes bound to the inside of the light bulb. Therefore, if all 270 million CFLs sold in 2009 were sent to a landfill (versus recycled, as a worst case) - they would add only 0.12 metric tons, or 0.12%, to U.S. mercury emissions caused by humans.

So how serious is the danger from breaking a CFL bulb? According to Yahoo Green, scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory concluded:

If you do a common sense job of cleaning up (open the windows, clean up, and remove the debris), then your mercury exposure would be the equivalent of taking a tiny nibble of tuna, according to Francis Rubinstein, a staff scientist at Berkeley Lab. What if you did the worst job possible, say closed all the doors and smashed the bulb with a hammer? It's still no big deal, says Rubinstein, who points out that it would be the equivalent of eating one can of tuna.

The CNS article also quoted Sen. James Risch (R-ID), who raised the specter of mercury exposure in schools from CFLs. Risch asked: “Can you imagine mercury bulbs throughout a school? I mean, any time a kid wants a day off he's going to break a mercury light bulb and that's going to shut that school down -- and if they don't they're going to have trouble with the EPA, according to what has to happen to clean it up.”

In fact, bulbs containing mercury are already present in any school that uses fluorescent lamps. It's not just CFLs that contain mercury, but also the familiar fluorescent tubes that homes, businesses and schools have been using for decades.