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How Dangerous Are Common Halogen 100W Bulbs?

W

W. eWatson

Jan 1, 1970
0
I had a 4" bayonet type in a socket. It just burned out. There are no
warning on the package, but my wife thinks they are dangerous. 5mg Hg. 60W
Westinghouse soft light, 2 yr. guarantee. She worried if it had broken. All
sorts of horrible things according to Snopes.
--
W. eWatson

(121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
Obz Site: 39° 15' 7" N, 121° 2' 32" W, 2700 feet

Web Page: <www.speckledwithstars.net/>
 
D

Don Bruder

Jan 1, 1970
0
I'll second that...

In a DISCHARGE lamp of some sort, sure. But a halogen is essentially
nothing but a "fancied up" incandescent that runs hotter than standard
so it can rebuild its filament instead of using it to silver the inside
of the bulb.

Beyond "naturally occurring trace amounts" of Hg (which might be part of
the components simply because nobody bothered to go to the effort of
removing it from the raw materials) what's a halogen bulb need ANY
quantity of mercury for?

I can't see a halogen bulb being anything but a purely physical danger
due to the sharp edges typically found on broken glass. I can think of
no chemical hazard at all.
 
E

Eeyore

Jan 1, 1970
0
W. eWatson said:
I had a 4" bayonet type in a socket. It just burned out. There are no
warning on the package, but my wife thinks they are dangerous. 5mg Hg. 60W
Westinghouse soft light, 2 yr. guarantee. She worried if it had broken. All
sorts of horrible things according to Snopes.

Bollocks.

Graham
 
W

Wim Lewis

Jan 1, 1970
0
I can't see a halogen bulb being anything but a purely physical danger
due to the sharp edges typically found on broken glass. I can think of
no chemical hazard at all.

The halogen itself is probably bad for you. But there's not much of
it, it'll have escaped once the bulb is broken, and it's not an
accumulating poison like mercury or lead. I have a hard time coming
up with a scenario in which it would be an actual danger.

I assume the warnings about the dangers of broken bulbs have to do with
the use of mercury and beryllium (both pretty toxic) in fluorescents.

Thing is, the OP mentions the marking "5 mg Hg" on the broken bulb.
Maybe it isn't actually a halogen?
 
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