When everyone pays attention to the advantages of LED light source, such as high luminous efficiency and energy saving, one of the most important advantages of LED lighting - mercury free, is often ignored. We know that mercury is an extremely toxic substance. However, most of the high-efficiency electric light sources used before 2012 contain mercury (mercury), whether common fluorescent lamps, compact energy-saving lamps, or high-pressure mercury, metal halide lamps, etc.
Mercury, however, has a very low boiling point and can evaporate at room temperature. After a waste discarded light source is broken, it will immediately emit mercury vapor to the surroundings, which can instantly make the mercury concentration in the surrounding air reach 10-20 mg/m3, 1000 to 2000 times higher than the maximum allowable concentration of mercury in the air (0.01 mg/m3) specified by the state. According to the research on mercury by Stanford University in the United States, 1 mg of mercury is enough to pollute 5454.5 kg of drinking water, making it fail to meet the safe drinking standard. The consequences of air and water pollution caused by mercury are very serious. After being eaten by aquatic organisms, CH3Hg will be generated, which is a highly toxic substance. Only half an ear spoon can kill people. Mercury itself will damage the central nervous system, and its effect on reproductive defects is also very serious. Mercury can also damage the kidney and liver, and even lead to death in sufficient doses. Mercury can be transferred in soil, water, atmosphere and food chain in different ways. Therefore, the persistence, mobility and high bioaccumulation make mercury one of the most attractive environmental pollutants in the world. The most serious mercury poisoning incident in history was the Minamata disease incident in Japan, when hundreds of people died because the water in Minamata Bay was polluted by mercury. Since 2013, the Japanese government has learned a lesson and required that all abandoned fluorescent lamps must be treated with toxic substances, thus requiring buyers of ordinary fluorescent lamps to pay twice as much in advance for the treatment of such toxic substances.
