Inexpensive LED Light Technology Breakthrough

A Safer Lighting Option Than CFLs as Incandescent Bulb Ban Looms

Feb 5, 2009

New, cheaper LED production technology is good news for those with concerns about CFLs, which use mercury and produce dirty electricity that is linked to health problems.

The cost of LED light production has meant that their use has been limited to some outdoor commercial lighting, Christmas lights and a few other situations. The high cost also lead to the promotion of Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs) as the best green option. But CFLs present some serious environmental and health concerns.

Compact Fluorescent Lights and the Mercury Issue

Cautions are being issued about the amount of mercury in fish, old dental fillings and the use of mercury as a stabilizing agent in vaccines, yet CFLs are being pushed on the public as the green alternative to incandescent bulbs.

While the quantity of mercury in CLFs is small, the use of these lights adds yet another source of mercury at a time when there is significant effort to reduce other mercury sources in everyday life. Efforts are being made to ensure that recycling of used mercury bulbs is environmentally sound but the issue of mercury contamination in the home when a CFL light bulb breaks has not been clearly addressed.

Health Concerns When Using CFLs

The mercury in fluorescent bulbs emits UV radiation, which interacts with chemicals in the bulb to generate light. Older tube type fluorescent bulbs have diffuser to filter that radiation but CFLs do not. Without the diffusers, persons with certain types of skin conditions which are sensitive to UV radiation may develop reactions when exposed to CFLs.

At this time there is little hard data on the specific effects of CFLs on health but there is significant information on the effects of dirty electricity. CFLs produce significantly more dirty electricity than incandescent or LED lights.

According to a report by Dr Magda Havas (Havas, Magda. 2008. "Health Concerns associated with Energy Efficient Lighting and their Electromagnetic Emissions. Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENHIR)", Request for Opinion on "Light Sensitivity"), dirty electricity has been associated with increased risk of cancer and behavioral problems in children. Patients with diabetes and multiple sclerosis have improved when dirty electricity sources in their homes have been reduced.

Persons with electrohypersensitivity may suffer multiple effects from compact fluorescent lighting. Everything from headache, dizziness and nausea to digestive problems and immunological abnormalities has been reported.

New LED Production Technology

A report in New Scientist (Barras, Colin. 2009. "Cheap, super-efficient LED lights on the horizon". www.newscientist.com) indicates that inexpensive LED lights may be available in as few as five years. Previously, production of LEDs required growing them on sapphire, hence the high cost. The new technology uses aluminum gallium nitride (GaN) will produce cleaner, more efficient bulbs that last up to ten times longer than CFLs and costs significantly less.

Best of all there have been no reports of health issues connected with the use of LED lights. While it is still early to say that there will be none, as LED use is largely limited to commercial applications at this time, it appears to be the greenest and healthiest option available.

The copyright of the article Inexpensive LED Light Technology Breakthrough in Energy Conservation is owned by Dawn M. Smith. Permission to republish Inexpensive LED Light Technology Breakthrough in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.