Latest from Green Market

Photo 226496518 / mohd izzuan ros / Dreamstime.com
acquisitions_2023_photo_226496518__mohd_izzuan_ros
Siemens
siemens_emobility

Sponsored

Philips, GE Lighting differ over mercury control in fluorescent lamps

March 1, 2003
Two of the industry's lamp giants have been making waves recently with a disagreement over how their low-mercury fluorescent products go about passing

Two of the industry's lamp giants have been making waves recently with a disagreement over how their low-mercury fluorescent products go about passing regulatory tests to qualify as non-hazardous waste.

The latest controversy concerns whether using chemical means-- specifically, ascorbic acid, or vitamin C--to render the mercury insoluble is an effective method for reducing mercury contamination when lamps are disposed of in a landfill.

GE Lighting, Nela Park, Ohio, last year introduced a line of fluorescent lamps under the "Ecolux" name. The line passed the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) to qualify as non-hazardous waste.

To reduce the amount of mercury leached by crushed lamps, GE Lighting's Ecolux line has a coating of ascorbic acid, which inhibits the solubility of mercury, in the lamps' end caps. In the TCLP test, entire lamps are crushed and steeped for 18 hours in a fluid mixture intended to simulate the sluice of chemicals commonly found in a landfill. Residue from the mixture is tested for mercury; the results determine whether the lamps pass the test.

Although the presence of ascorbic acid in the fluid mixture effectively neutralizes the threat of contamination, rival Philips Lighting contends that conditions in a landfill are unlikely to duplicate those in the laboratory--that, especially in longer lamps such as common 8-ft fluorescents, mercury is likely to never mix with ascorbic acid in the end caps.

GE Lighting stands by its design and the use of vitamin C for mercury containment. "The purpose of the ascorbic acid is to reduce the leachability of mercury," said Janice Fraser, manager--communications and government/media relations for GE Lighting. "It's simply a matter of taking different approaches to achieve the same objective. When we developed the Ecolux line, our scientists and engineers looked at a number of options that would achieve that same effect. Ascorbic acid proved to be effective and the most benign of the materials considered." Philips Lighting's Alto line uses no agents to neutralize the mercury, according to Steve Goldmacher, communications director for Philips Lighting.

About the Author

Doug Chandler | Senior Staff Writer

Doug has been reporting and writing on the electrical industry for Electrical Wholesaling and Electrical Marketing since 1992 and still finds the industry’s evolution and the characters who inhabit its companies endlessly fascinating. That was true even before e-commerce, LED lighting and distributed generation began to disrupt so many of the electrical industry’s traditional practices.

Doug earned a BA in English Literature from the University of Kansas after spending a few years in KU’s William Allen White School of Journalism, then deciding he absolutely did not want to be a journalist. In the company of his wife, two kids, two dogs and two cats, he spends a lot of time in the garden and the kitchen – growing food, cooking, brewing beer – and helping to run the family coffee shop.

Sponsored Recommendations