Antiques can pose mercury hazard

[pk]

Careful with that antique clock. It could pose a mercury hazard.

The silvery, skittering, and toxic liquid can be found in some antiques. Mirrors can be backed with mercury and tin; Clock pendulums might be weighted with embedded vials of mercury; and barometers, thermometers and lamps may have mercury in their bases for ballast.

The problem is that mercury in old items can leak, particularly as seals age or when the items are moved, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Ask Ann Smith, whose heirloom clock's pendulum leaked mercury onto the carpet of her gift store in rural Delhi, N.Y., as a cleaner moved it.

An attempt to vacuum the tiny silver balls off the carpet only made things worse, requiring a hazardous materials team to be dispatched to Parker House Gifts and Accessories last summer.

"I didn't really think it was the hazard that it became," Smith said. "I grew up in the days when you played with the mercury that spilled out of a thermometer and nobody knew it was a problem."

Exposure to high levels of mercury can cause damage to the brain, heart, kidneys, lungs and immune system. Even the few ounces found in some antiques can be dangerous. Aptly nicknamed quicksilver, it's hard to clean up, and can become an inhalation hazard if it vaporizes.


FULL STORY HERE: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070619/..._QLS7K7BlH2ocA

[Kris10]

I love this! Another symptom of mercury poisoning is madness, and I'm surrounded by old junk. I can blame the antiques!

[MrKhay]

I used to play with mercury when I was a kid. It made dimes look like brand new.
Those curly compact fluorescent light bulbs that are/were all the rage as being energy efficient, and all what have ya, are loaded with mercury. Once they wear out, you can't just chuck them off to the landfill...they have to go to the "special" recycling facility. And if you happen to drop one, causing a break, you'll need a haz-mat team to come to you and clean it up. These bulbs are brought to us by the Chinese...just another way our "friends" from the far east are trying to poison us. Toxic chemicals in our pet food, toxic material in our light bulbs.
What else?
Grandma was right...it's the Chinese we should watch out for.

[pk]

Those curly compact fluorescent light bulbs that are/were all the rage as being energy efficient, and all what have ya, are loaded with mercury. Once they wear out, you can't just chuck them off to the landfill...they have to go to the "special" recycling facility. And if you happen to drop one, causing a break, you'll need a haz-mat team to come to you and clean it up.

Wow, never heard of this before and I think I have one of these bulbs upstairs. I will check this out tomorrow and it will be gone for sure.

Thanks for the warning. :?

[pk]

CHECK OUT THIS STORY;

Consumers in dark over risks of new light bulbs
Push for energy-saving fluorescents ignores mercury disposal hazards.


WASHINGTON – Brandy Bridges heard the claims of government officials, environmentalists and retailers like Wal-Mart all pushing the idea of replacing incandescent light bulbs with energy-saving and money-saving compact fluorescent lamps.

So, last month, the Prospect, Maine, resident went out and bought two dozen CFLs and began installing them in her home. One broke. A month later, her daughter's bedroom remains sealed off with plastic like the site of a hazardous materials accident, while Bridges works on a way to pay off a $2,000 estimate by a company specializing in environmentally sound cleanups of the mercury inside the bulb.

With everyone from Al Gore to Wal-Mart to the Environmental Protection Agency promoting CFLs as the greatest thing since, well, the light bulb, consumers have been left in the dark about a problem they will all face eventually – how to get rid of the darn things when they burn out or, worse yet, break.

CFLs are all the rage. They are the spirally shaped, long-lasting bulbs everyone is being urged, cajoled and guilt-tripped into purchasing to replace Thomas Edison's incandescents, which are being compared to sports utility vehicles for their impracticality and energy inefficiency. However, there is no problem disposing of incandescents when their life is over. You can throw them in the trash can and they won't hurt the garbage collector. They won't leech deadly compounds into the air or water. They won't kill people working in the landfills.

The same cannot be said about the mercury-containing CFLs. They bear disposal warnings on the packaging. But with limited recycling prospects and the problems experienced by Brandy Bridges sure to be repeated millions of times, some think government, the green community and industry are putting the cart before the horse marketing the new technology so ferociously.

Consider her plight....


FULL STORY HERE: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/ar...TICLE_ID=55213

[j10asen]

Originally Posted by pk

CHECK OUT THIS STORY;

Consumers in dark over risks of new light bulbs
Push for energy-saving fluorescents ignores mercury disposal hazards.

Consider her plight....

FULL STORY HERE: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/ar...TICLE_ID=55213

This is very enlightening pk!!!

[pk]

This is very enlightening pk!!!

Not only is it enlightening (like the pun on words there) lol, but it really scares the dang mercury right out of me! The light that I had one of these bulbs in was right out side of my daughters bedroom! Can't even remember what we did with the other bulb that I bought at the time. It could be stored downstairs in the basement or...I am going to look around today.

:evil: This is just wrong that they can sell bulbs that are sooo potentially dangerous and not have a huge warning on them!! Of course who would purchase them if they knew it could cost thousands of dollars to clean it up if one bulb broke on the floor!

I remember one time standing in front of a huge display of these bulbs at our local Menards with my husband. We were discussing if we should buy these for our house since they had a nice sale and they were SUPPOSE TO BE BETTER! But my husband said he didn't like them for some reason...can't remember why but we decided not to buy them.

Wow am I ever glad we did not!!

pk

[j10asen]

I have one of those srewy looking bulbs in my computer desk lamp and it is not lasting very long, and, no I do not spend much time at my computer at home anymore since I live in front of one at work.

I guess you can say they are screwing us with those screwed-up ,screwy lights. It is hard to imagine how twisted those lights turned out to be. I am backing out buying any more before I go into a downward spiral and get wrapped up in it all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[j10asen]

Originally Posted by Kris10

I love this! Another symptom of mercury poisoning is madness, and I'm surrounded by old junk. I can blame the antiques!

With all those Mercry Vapor lights in our citties no wonder all that madness was going on. I just bet now that Sodium Vapor lights have replavced Mercury Vaopr lights they can free all those residents from the insane asylums.
Now I feel much safer , I think I will post this out on MySpace.com

[MrKhay]

....sure, now we'll have to worry about sodium poisoning.
"It's always something, if it's not one thing, it's the other..."
-Rosann Rosannadanna-

[j10asen]

Originally Posted by SpaceBrain

....sure, now we'll have to worry about sodium poisoning.
"It's always something, if it's not one thing, it's the other..."
-Rosann Rosannadanna-

JJJJUSS DON'T GO MADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD OVER IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[JimiW]

Well now I find out after I put them in all the light fixtures in the house! I gotta admit they have saved me hundreds in electric bills. Jimi

[pk]

Since this topic was actually suppose to be mercury in Antiques and not modern lightbulbs (sorry, I added that story on here) :? I am going to actually put this article on as a topic in the breakroom for further comments.

Please feel free to continue this important discussion there where even more members will notice it, and let's get back to mercury in antiques. :lol:

thanks!

pk

[MrKhay]

For as long as those curly fluorescent light bulbs last, they could easily become antiques! :? 8O