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As traditional halogen bulbs are slowly being phased out, energy saving fluorescents and LEDs are filling the gap left by old filament technologies.

Whilst this saves you money and reduces the strain on non-renewable energy sources, fluorescent lights pose a completely new risk altogether from the amounts of mercury inside them.

All kinds of fluorescent light – from standard household bulbs to commercially used tube lights – contain traces of Mercury.

The Effects Of Mercury On You

It’s only present in small amounts, but the effects of Mercury exposure still warrant caution when handling broken bulbs.

Although it exists in a liquid form at room temperature, it can quickly evaporate into a vapour making it easy to inhale without even realising.

It can have quite bad effects on your own health and wellbeing for a start – causing damage to your brain, internal organs and immune system.

Some of the symptoms can include coughing up blood, chest pains and feelings of irritability and nervousness.

If you have cracked a fluorescent light and think you may have leaked Mercury, be sure to ventilate the room as much as possible, by opening windows for at least 15 minutes.

Keep children and pets away from the room too, as they are more susceptible to the effects of Mercury poisoning.

If you have any issues with leaks, we would advise getting in touch with your local council’s environmental health department.

The Environment

Mercury is also detrimental to the environment too, impacting wider natural ecosystems. Most people’s exposure to Mercury does indeed come via contaminated fishes.

The nature of mercury that has been ingested by animals is that is also carries over across the food chain – so otters, seagulls or other species that feed on fish also become contaminated.

This raises the question of how they were exposed in the first place, and the problem lies in disposal.

Although you’re required to dispose of fluorescent lights in specially designated areas, many people don’t.

Even with the proper disposal areas in place, this is still a laborious task – having to go to special waste sites and then the relatively expensive process of Mercury gas capture.

All this results in excess amounts Mercury ending up in the environment – which is bad for everyone.

The Solution

Although measures have been in place to reduce the amount of Mercury in fluorescent bulbs for some years now, the problem is still prevalent throughout the world.

Plus it only takes a small amount to cause damage.

One easy solution to prevent any of this happening is to invest in LED lighting.

LEDs contain zero amounts of mercury – or any other hazardous substance for that matter. This makes them just as easy to recycle as a newspaper or a can of coke!

With this in mind, not only do LEDs save you money through their energy efficient, low power requirements, but they are also far kinder to the environment too.

This is especially important in our current time where there is such a huge push to use green initiatives – so make the change by investing in LED lights for your home today!

Take a look at our entire range of LED tube lights and LED light bulbs, and rest assured that you’re doing your bit for the environment by purchasing them!