Chile Forum

Just occurred to me while walking past some of the damaged structures on the way to pay some bills and go to the supermarket: there was probably quite a bit of mercury released into many places inhabited by humans (and pets) from the breaking of fluorescent lights and energy saver lights. Probably most evaporated off and dispersed in low concentrations into the air more or less but you got to wonder since mercury toxicity is cumulative. And I doubt those involved in cleaning up such messes inside stores, businesses, homes, etc. had an inkling of the danger and probably spread the contaminants around.

Be aware of the symptoms if mercury toxicity has occurred.

Can you please let me know what the symptoms are? I know it's toxic but don't know how that shows. Thanks.

Yea, there has been some discussion in the papers about how Chile as yet to do an environmental impact study about the earthquake.

Forget about mercury as a major concern, but I am wondering about how many septic systems were damaged. A lot of them were not exactly top notch to begin with. Thrown in chemical and industrial companies, and there is some serious environmental studies that need to be done out there.

On the mercury front, likly the place it is going to show first is in the fish in the rivers and off the coast of the major hit areas. Even in the minor damaged areas I know I had something like a dozen florescent bulbs in my house that died but did not break. How many millions of bulbs went out across Chile?

One thing though you need to keep in context is that the areas that were most likly to suffer contamination, were also some the most contaminated in Chile. That corridor between about the 8th region and Santiago is likly the most polluted part of Chile, apart from the heavy mining areas up north that have legacy issues dating back to the dictatorship. It is where the fruit industry runs crop dusters and so on, and most of the manufacturing of raw goods takes place with the factories.

"There's an extremely small amount of mercury in those bulbs," Hogue said. "It's a very minimal risk" and can easily be cleaned up at home.

One CFL contains a hundred times less mercury than is found in a single dental amalgam filling or old-style glass thermometer, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).


http://news.nationalgeographic<dot>com/news/2007/05/070518-cfls-bulbs.html

And did you read the part about the correct way to clean up a breakage?

How many chilenos cleaning up a department store or supermarket followed THAT? How many chilenos flicked the switch on their vacuum cleaner when the power returned?

The stuff is cumulative unless you properly detox. Strange for all the pooh poohing about how safe they are, the same experts recommend a specific protocol for cleaning up a breakage instead of just immediately sweeping it away or sucking it up in a vacuum.

Anyways, I use regular light bulbs because I prefer the light produced by them and because I do not trust anyone else in my household except me to know how to clean up a CFL in the event of a breakage.

Eating your cilantro and also consuming supplements like chlorella and spirulina aid in heavy metal detoxing of the body.

Cilantro is good for heavy metal detox? As well as being the best for making killer salsa?

I'm finding that a lot of foods that are really good for you are super tasty. Not my old vision of "health food" at all.

Yeah, I was cleaning a low-energy light bulb the other day and found a hole in the tube. Oops!

James.

eeuunikkeiexpat wrote:Anyways, I use regular light bulbs because I prefer the light produced by them

Anyways, even when Chookcha travels -- he always has a couple of regular light bulbs (and some wiring) with him..

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Don't forget about the asbestos from the ancient pizarreno roof tiles...!

And the good old toxic dust from that cracked plaster in your apartments and places of work Actually on that: if your walls and roofs did sustain cracks then the suggestion is to do mop your apartment and clean with a wet rag as opposed to vacuuming and dusting. The moisture captures more of the dust particles while the dusting and vacuuming just stirs them up and throws them back into the air.