Going further OT, I actually broke one last Fall (overhand swing with a flyswater - oops!) but I have already been told that mercury is in them but in a miniscule amount. A co-worker's young toddler broke one about two years ago and mom called the Poison control hotline and was told that it would take 100 CFL bulbs to equal the amount of mercury in a household thermometer. That is a small amount. By the way, the light was on at the time that I broke it and the whomp, whomp, whomp noise that it made was straight out of a science fiction movie and the pretty colors were mesmerising before it quit. :p
I was heavilly involved in auto racing in the 90's as PR director for a major short track (Anderson (IN) Speedway). Mercury is bad news and apparently it was one of the cheating crazes back then, as stock cars had to meet minimum weight balance requirements (drivers would love 80 percent left side weight vs. the right side but that would be unsafe). The frame rails on the right side would be filled with mercury before the race (when the Left vs. right was checked) and then the mercury would drain out of holes and the right side would weigh less. We were talking HUGE amounts of mercury. The first few times that it happened was "that is innovative, take a few weeks of the tour to think about what you've done" and then it was "you are out for the sport for the rest of your life and you'd better come up with the clean up funds!" My guess that cheat is no longer the rage. 73, Dave in Indy Back on Topic - I have not noted much RF from CFL's. I do not like that there is a warm up period. I want my light, now. :) ------------------------------ Message: 6 Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2009 11:00:44 -0800 From: <[email protected]> Subject: [IRCA] CFL bulbs To: [email protected] Message-ID: <20090203140044.880g5.4361567.r...@mp14> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 CFL bulbs - not only are they prolific RFI producers, but if you break one a small but definite amount of mercury is released. If ambient temperatures are warm enough, it probably vaporizes quickly, which isn't such a good thing in its own right. Hard to believe they are supposed to 'save the planet' with that nasty habit. Oops - back to just reading the mail... Scott NM8R Michigan (I did some engineering work for an environmental clean up company a few years back, removing mercury laden soil from a large utility's natural gas metering stations. We could easily detect mercury in the air with our portable sampling equipment, years after it had been spilled. Not from CFL's of course, but from an old metering process that was used in the '60's and before. It is a most elusive element to contain, and certainly not good for you. So be careful with those CFL's.) Back on-topic - great conditions lately! Among others, I am hearing R. Medi on 171 nearly nightly since Friday evening, and it has been strong enough to provide arm chair copy on my Zenith Trans-O portable in the living room several times. (Steve R. is probably getting sick of getting my little video clips of my Zenith, I bet.) He provided me an audio clip of 171 last night that made it sound like a local. All the more amazing when you consider he must look over the Pole to see the station. _______________________________________________ IRCA mailing list [email protected] http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: [email protected]
