I've been reading (from Russ's post and other sources) that there is mercury in fluoresent lights. My question is : Do the lights give off mercury into the space they're in or is the danger just in the possibility of them breaking and the mercury escaping?
This could be a significant issue as in our household, like many others,we have replaced many regular bulbs with the small fluoresent bulbs to conserve energy.
Chelan

Hi! goood question!

Here is one link I found doing Scroogle.com searches on this:

http://ruk.ca/discuss/2461

Seems that flourescent lighting's mercury is more troublesome if you crack a bulb by mistake.

I did read elsewhere that flourescent lighting is bad for animals/plants/and humans-- causes migraines and depression in many people, and the type of spectrum/rays does something to our general health-by lowering the immune system.

If i were you, I'd get those flourescent bulbs the heck out of there and invest in some Full spectrum bulbs at least.

http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/nbbw.cgi

I found some 60 watt full spectrum bulbs for about $6.99 a bulb, but they last forever!

I read a detailed info paper someone from Germany (I think?If I remember correctly) wrote some time ago that said that fluorescent lights are banned from German hospitals because they emit mercury.

This does not make sense to me because the mercury is encased in glass, but I just haven't seen any hard information on it. I'm thinking on renting a mercury vapor meter in the next week or so and take readings myself.

I wish there was something I could do about this...I am spending 40 hours a week at work under these horrible lights. They really make me feel bad and give me a headache, but there is not much I can do... The entire building has them.

Hi Russ,
Thanks for replying to my querry on mercury emissions from fluoresent lights. If you rent the testing meter and do some tests around lights, would you please post your findings. It would be very interesting I'm sure to all of us.
Chelan

Chelan, it is an interesting question. Whenever I go with my daughter to her gymnastics class, I experience double vision which I cannot straighten out. When I leave, everything is fine again. There are fluorescent lights all over her gym. But, I must admit, light in itself, causes problems - sunlight, car lights. But regular lighting in a building does not seem to cause a problem.

Not only will I post my findings on mercury from fluorescent lights, I will video the process and post it here.

Because I've heard that mercury is emitted from these lights, I wonder if they collect contamination from the factory and tend to emit more vapor when they heat up. I will test them on, off and just out of the box.

Do refular light bulbs have mercury in them? Those are the only ones we have in my house, as far as I am aware. I was concerned that my computer is directly below my light bulb (about a metre between my head right now and the bulb, but I have an uplifting light shade, which may help somewhat , I don't know. I've heard that any artificial light isn't good. I'm trying to get up earlier and bed earlier to make the most of natural light.

That should read "regular" light bulb, lol.

I'm not positive, but I don't believe that incandescent lights have mercury in them. Of course, in today's world, you never know.

hi Russ, I would be very interested if you turn up any results on flourescent tubes emitting mercury.
It doesnt sound logical and yet I have always noticed since childhood that they made me feel ill.
The migraine connection is probably the frequency, flickering not visible in normal conditions ,interfering with brain patterns and causing mini electical storms as in epilepsy.
But if they emit mercury ,well that would add another interesting dimension ...
Susan
Hastings UK

Yes, I will definitely post the information I find here on this forum when I do mercury testing on fluorescent lights. I'm very interested in finding the results as well.

Take care.

I came from work today, went into kitchen to make dinner and turned the light on and immediately noticed there light being different. I didn't bother and and went in to do my thing, only JUST SECONDS later to notice I'm getting depressed and feeling like on "another planet." I knew instantly it was the light, and quickly made the connection between the fluorescent lights and mercury. But tried to ignore it, in case - I though - the hypochondric part of my personality was being at work there and just not to "overreact". I started doing dinner, and so leaned over the table and as I was cutting veggies I felt burning sensation in the back-left part of my head/brain. As I looked up, I saw the bulb being directly above me there, just few centimeteres above my head (the light is hung very low in my kitchen).

Of course, once I stepped back the feeling went instantly away and after getting out of the kitchen the depression was completely gone.

This sh*t emits mercury. Period.

I get seizures from fluorescent lights.... I think it is the flickering more than anything else.
I don't have the same problem with the CFL (curly lights) and they don't flicker the same.... but yeah I still have 18 amalgams in a lot of cracked teeth and I am sick as a dog all the time, so the thought of any more mercury is not good in my life.

This is interesting. I've always been unable to read properly under fluorescent lights compared to normal ones. I've been told this is due to my dyslexia. I did some research into fluorescent light sensitivity and photophobia (basically the lights flickers too much and inhibit reading ability), and according to this website (http://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/lightsensitive.htm) mercury poisoning can affect it. It doesn't mention anything about fluorescent lights emitting mercury, just the flicker and the sufferer’s sensitivity to it...

Sorry I didn't post the results here yet. We finished our experiments months ago and I haven't had time to post this info.

In short, I can tell you that we got 0 readings on mercury from fluorescent lights. We didn't detect any being emitted from them.

I do know that they can be irritating, however, because they flash on and off too quickly to see but your eyes can become fatigued under these conditions.

I'll eventually post the results of the experiment here:

http://herballure.com/Studies/index.html

HI Russ, but you did detect significant mercury from cigarettes didn't you? I am really interested in that one. Because many people smoke and may not be aware of how much even small amounts of mercury may affect them significantly (among all the other toxic metals contained within, as well as the chemicals). I still haven't come right since my smoking binge and that was nearly three months ago now. Goes to show how lethal they are. Though I'm hypersensitive and have problems eliminating toxins, for me, it has tested how bad they really are.

I am wondering if there is actually mercury in cigarettes (I wouldn't be surprised, there is arsenic), or if smoking with amalgams in your mouth just increases the release of mercury from the amalgams because of the heat generated by the cigarette. I have read that Dr. Boyd Haley says any agitation or increase in temp causes an increase in release of mercury from amalgams. This is why people who chew gum, grind teeth, and drink lots of hot liquids (ie coffee/teas) get more mercury from their amalgams than those who don't.

I can only assume mercury sufferers seem to be affected by the flicker more than others - which, to me, suggests it's related to how mercury affects certain parts of the brain.

What do you think?

asus, that is true. When I had amalgams(10 years ago), anytime I had a hot drink, I would get some very bizzare symptoms. This is what would happen. I would start to get wheezing in the lungs, I'd suddenly get uncontrollable giggling, silly thoughts, and I'd begin to sweat under the arms. All of this would be set off by hot fluids. I knew something was happening, but at that stage I did not know what on earth it was. I was bemused by the whole thing. in fact, some people asked me if I was on drugs, because I'd go almost loopy with silliness sometimes.

Now I realise it was causing vapors off the amalgams, setting off mercury, which was causing these hyper symptoms, plus the wheezing in the lungs. Reason I know this is, when I had them out, but was excreting mercury via the pores of my skin, anytime I had a hot bath, the vapor from the mercury coming out of my skin woudl set off the identical symptoms that I USED to get with hot drinks. The same wheezing in the lungs, giggling and bizzare silly thoughts.

Mad as a hatter type symptoms basically. Since this cigarette bout? I have had simliar symptoms without even really doing anything. So they must have mercury in them, because I have no amalgams at all anymore for the cigarettes to increase any mercury coming off.

Either that, or the toxins still in me were set off by the differing toxins of the cigarettes. I really don't know, but since the smoking, I've tasted metal and smelt it on myself when I sweat. So certainly they contain metals. I hear they are hghest in cadmium. That might be most of the reason, as I have not been improving and cadmium stays in the system. I have not had success either with using chelating drugs for mercury (normally this would always work), now it doesn't. So I gather it is a metal that is not what those drugs are able to chelate.

Well, here's what we did.

We have an employee who used to smoke exhale cigarette smoke into a plastic container which had a small hole in it. We inserted the mercury probe into the hole and took a reading.

The reading was literally off the scale of the device. It was so high that it indicated that we had to put the device into self-cleaning mode and cool down which takes about an hour.

Next, we had the employee stand about 10 feet upwind and exhale smoke while another employee held the device and took samples while smoke blew by. It was windy (about 10 to 15 mph) so the device was only able to catch short bursts of smoke.

We did this to simulate someone standing on a corner, for example, while someone nearby inhaled second-hand smoke.

The readings from this were on the order of the amount of mercury vapor that comes off a can of tuna when it's first opened... quite high (depending on brand of tuna). I don't remember the exact numbers but they are all on the video.

I know that certain dense particulates can interfere with the device measurements so we don't know if the readings we're accurate or not, but it sure makes you want to see some controlled lab tests, especially if you smoke.

I'll work on getting it posted as soon as possible but I know it will probably be a couple weeks if not months.

Thanks Russ. I remember something about this in one of the other posts. That is very interesting indeed. There isn't any doubt in my mind what those results indicated, regardless of "other" interferences. From what has occured to me, I can look anybody in the eye and tell them that I have been poisoned badly with metal toxins. Whether mercury is one or not, makes no difference, I'm as sick as a dog and no sign of recovery (which is indicative of the state my body is in the rest of the time).

I think the stuff is lethal personally. I only think those that get away with smoking it, have a much better filter system and stronger immunity and seem to get away with just about anything they do. Lucky them. I wish I were like that.