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Ask Natural Life:
Shedding Light on Lightbulbs
by Wendy Priesnitz
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Photo © Shutterstock
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Q: I keep hearing that various places are have banned or are going to ban incandescent light
bulbs. But I am aware of some problems with those compact
fluorescent bulbs that seem to have been all the rage for a while now.
And now, it seems they are also disappearing from the stores in
favor of LEDs. Could you please sort through the confusion?
A: Incandescent bulbs are actually small heaters that produce a little
light on the side, wasting a lot of energy and creating a lot of
pollution. According to the Rocky Mountain Institute, residential,
commercial, industrial and municipal lighting uses 22 percent of all
the electricity generated. In the U.S. alone, lighting accounts for
about 39 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions from electric
generating plants. So we’re not surprised that many governments are
trying to switch consumers from incandescents to other
technologies.
The primary alternative for a number of years
was the compact fluorescent lamp (CFL). However,
while they reportedly use
approximately one quarter of the energy used by incandescent bulbs –
they are far from the perfect alternative that some of the rhetoric
might suggest.
Going Out of Style
As those ubiquitous, headache-inducing, glaring and buzzing tubes found
in offices and stores went compact, they lost some of their annoying qualities.
However, compact fluorescents that rival the warm
light of traditional bulbs, that don’t buzz, and are hard to
dim, were hard to find when people began to switch about ten years
ago, and are now increasingly absent from stores.
There were large differences
in terms of quality of light, cost, and turn-on time among different
manufacturers, even for bulbs that appear identical. The quality
of light can be poor, especially in the cheaper bulbs: Incandescent filaments
can emit the full spectrum of light,
but most fluorescent lamps, especially the inexpensive ones, don’t.
There are also problems in that many CFLs
don’t turn on instantly. They may appear dim initially, taking 30
seconds or more to reach full brightness. Others can flicker when they are
first turned on. These issues have to do with the warming up of the ballast
that lights the bulb. In addition, CFLs tend to be bulkier than other types
of bulb, and many people found that they didn’t fit into certain light
fixtures.
But the major problem, in my opinion, is that all
CFLs contain small amounts of mercury, which is classified as a hazardous substance. According to the National
Institutes of Health, exposures to very small amounts of mercury can result
in devastating neurological and kidney damage, and even death. For fetuses,
infants and children, the primary health effects of mercury are on
neurological development. They have to be treated as household hazardous
waste, rather than being entered into municipal waste or recycling systems. However, as the popularity of the bulbs increased, more of them
were being
thrown into the garbage, either through carelessness, lack of recycling
options or lack of knowledge about the danger. They end up broken in
landfills and emitting vaporous methyl mercury, which can get into the food
chain more easily than the mercury removed during the recycling process.
When I first wrote about CFLs in 2007, good quality bulbs
carried
the Energy Star logo on the packaging. But since then, Energy Star made it
more difficult for CFLs to get their rating, and many retailers stopped
selling them. General Electric stopped manufacturing them in 2016. However,
the mercury problem remains because, given their long life, many homes are
still using them.
Alternatives To the Alternative
There are alternatives to CFLs and incandescent
bulbs.
A tungsten-halogen lamp is an incandescent lamp with
gases from the halogen family sealed inside. It has similar light output to
a regular incandescent while using up to 40 percent less power. Although
tungsten-halogen lamps are more expensive, they last two to four times
longer than conventional incandescents. Unfortunately, they operate at very
high temperatures and, in some instances, can pose a fire hazard. Halogen
torchiere floor lamps are actually so dangerous they’re banned in some areas
due to their tendency to tip and start fires.
Parabolic aluminized reflector (PAR) lamps, typically
used as spotlights or floodlights inside or outside homes, are also
available with halogen technology. A standard 150-watt incandescent
spotlight can be replaced with a lower wattage halogen lamp, reducing
electricity consumption by up to 40 percent.
LEDs – The Pros and Cons
The best alternative is the light-emitting diode (LED.) LEDs
have been used in electronics, flashlights, headlamps for hiking, and Christmas
decorations, for quite a few years. But their use as household lighting is
more recent,
possibly due to the high price initially. Back in 2007, I predicted that the
cost would decrease rapidly as they became more popular, and that has
happened, totally removing the barriers to their use.
LED lights are reported to use 85 to 90 percent less
energy than conventional bulbs. They are preferable to CFLs because they don’t contain mercury, and better
than halogens because they burn cool and aren’t fragile. They last up to 10
times longer than CFLs – up to 60,000 hours, which averages out to 12 hours
of light per day for 12 years. They are also highly directional, which means
that they only put the light where you aim it, and can be attached to
flexible strips and used in other innovative ways. They also turn on instantly
and don’t need to warm up.
However, LEDs also have a pollution problem. (Are there any manufactured
products that don’t?!) A study published in late 2010 in the journal Environmental Science and Technology found that they
contain lead, arsenic, copper, and a dozen other potentially
dangerous substances. Researcher Oladele Ogunseitan, chair of the
University of California (UC)-Irvine’s Department of Population
Health & Disease Prevention, and colleagues tested several types of
LEDs, including those used as Christmas lights, traffic lights, car
headlights, and brake lights. Low-intensity red LEDs were found to
contain up to eight times the amount of lead, a known neurotoxin.
White LEDs contain the least lead, but still harbor large amounts of
nickel. The researchers recommended handling and disposing of a
broken LED in the same way you would a broken CFL.
Another issue has surfaced with LEDs as well.
According to DDr. Alexander Wunsch, a world
class expert on photobiology, LED
lighting can be a serious source of electromagnetic field (EMF) radiation
exposure. Among other ramifications, he cautions that it could lead to
age-related macular degeneration, which is a leading cause of blindness in
the elderly. LED bulbs emit primarily blue wavelengths and lack the
counterbalancing near-infrared frequencies; you may have heard that you
should avoid using computer and mobile device screens at night due to the
blue light disrupting circadian rhythms.
In Europe and other
parts of the world, where LED use has been mandated by government, there has
also been concern. For instance, the French Agency for Health and Safety of
Food, Environment and Employment has expressed concern about the damage that
could be caused to the eye due to direct exposure to fixtures emitting
highly intense light. Presumably, shielded lighting fixtures could mitigate
that danger.
A study published by CELMA, the
Federation of European Lighting Companies, compared the photo-biological
safety of LED-based light sources to non-LED sources. It concluded that
LED-based lighting sources are as safe to use as incandescent bulbs and
fluorescent bulbs and that the amount of blue light emitted from them is no
different than that emitted from non-LED light sources. However, that study
was conducted by an industry organization that could have vested interests,
and more research should be done.
Nevertheless, I think
careful use of LEDs is your best bet if you are interested in
energy-efficiency. Otherwise, incandescent bulbs have not completely
disappeared from the market in many places, and don’t seem to have the
health or environmental effects of the current alternatives.
Wendy Priesnitz is the Editor of Natural Life Magazine and a
journalist with over 40 years experience. She has also authored 13 books. This article was originally published in Natural Life Magazine in 2007, updated in 2011 and 2014
and completely rewritten in 2018.
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