• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
  • WordPress
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
Science Update

Science Update

Sharing Science | Satisfying Curiosity | Debunking BS

  • Spotlights
  • Reality Check
  • Why Is It?
  • Radio Archives
  • Sciup @ School
Home » Radio Archive » Daily Show » Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs

Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs

May 27, 2009
https://podcast.scienceupdate.com/090527_sciup_comp.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window

BOB HIRSHON (host):
A burning question about bulbs…I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.

Compact fluorescent lightbulbs save a lot of electricity, but they also contain the toxic element mercury. Listener Becca Buzzell of Strafford, New Hampshire, asked if CFLs pose more of a hazard to the environment than incandescent bulbs. We consulted Francis Rubinstein of the lighting research group at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. He says the amount of mercury in a CFL bulb is tiny — about the size of a dot at the end of a sentence. CFLs should be taken to a hazardous waste facility so the mercury will get recycled safely. If the bulbs do get thrown in the trash, Rubinstein says they end up in landfill.

FRANCIS RUBINSTEIN (Lawrence Berkeley Lab):
Landfill, generally, though, is carefully constructed so that toxic materials in landfill cannot leach out and affect the aquifers or get into the water table or things like that.

HIRSHON:
I’m Bob Hirshon for AAAS, the science society.

Category: Daily ShowTag: Chemistry, Energy, Engineering & Technology, Environment & Conservation, Medicine & Health
Previous Post:Supernovas
Next Post:Looming Sounds

Sidebar

Radio Program Archives

Want to learn more about the brain? The environment? Here you can browse the topics that come up regularly on Science Update.

Search the Archives

Categories

  • Daily Show
  • Station Download
  • Weekly Show

Find By Tag

  • 2020
  • Acoustics & Sound
  • Aging
  • Animal Behavior
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Astronomy & Space
  • Biology
  • Brain Science
  • Bugs
  • Chemistry
  • Children & Families
  • cicadas
  • Climate & Weather
  • Communications
  • Computer Science
  • Economics & Business
  • Education
  • Energy
  • Engineering & Technology
  • Environment & Conservation
  • Genetics & Evolution
  • Geology
  • Marine Science
  • Materials Science
  • Mathematics
  • Medicine & Health
  • Microbiology
  • Nanotechnology
  • Nutrition & Food Science
  • Paleontology & Dinosaurs
  • Physics
  • Plants & Agriculture
  • Political Science
  • Reality Check
  • Social & Behavioral Sciences
  • Sports & Fitness
  • spotlight
  • Spotlight Bugs
  • Terrorism & War
  • Why Is It? Questions
  • Wildlife
  • Year in Review

Find By Date

Science Update
  • About Science Update
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • YouTube

Recent Posts

Mayan Honeybee hives
House sparrow wearing top hat rides aboard a red fireworks rocket

Copyright © 2023 · Springtail Media LLC · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Pongos