Low consumption lamps: call for caution

Written by Sandeep Nehra

The Consumer Safety Commission (SCC) recommends taking precautions when choosing or using low-energy bulbs, while “their potential harmfulness that debate,” she says in a statement on Tuesday.

The low energy light bulbs, also known as compact fluorescent lamps, “have replaced the traditional incandescent lamps, power-hungry too,” said the CSC.

They use “four to five times less power for equivalent performance in terms of lighting,” according to the manufacturers and their “life is between 6,000 and 10,000 hours against 1,000 hours for a conventional bulb.

But “their potential harmfulness that debate” in terms of mercury content and levels of emission of electromagnetic waves, said the SAC.

“In the current state of knowledge”, the Commission advises consumers to “emphasize the purchase of lights showing the amounts of mercury as low as possible.”

“If you break” from one of these lamps, it recommends to ventilate the room and length of leave, then pick up the pieces carefully with gloves and paper towels and place them in plastic bags, but do not vacuum, “which helps to airborne particles of mercury.”

She also advises to keep a minimum distance of 30 centimeters of a lamp such as prolonged exposure.

In addition, the CSC calls on authorities to “determine the maximum exposure to the vapors of mercury into the air” and hopes that “the EU Directive on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in electrical and electronic equipment currently in force should be revised “to consider” technological “lowering” the maximum level of mercury in five to less than two milligrams per lamp.

Similarly, the Commission “encourages professionals to make, thanks to new technologies available, lamps containing less mercury and can emit electromagnetic radiation less intense.”

SCC, independent administrative authority created by the Act of 21 July 1983 on consumer safety, is composed of judges of high courts, representatives of consumer and professional colleges and qualified, she says on its website.

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