In case you haven’t noticed shopping at your local hardware store, the incandescent light bulb discovered by Thomas Edison has gone the way of the dinosaur. This is thanks to government regulations which encourage greater light bulb energy efficiency. The market for incandescent light bulbs has quickly been replaced by CFLs and LED bulbs in recent years. While you can still find incandescent bulbs, they are typically specialty bulbs with very low wattage that are not ideal for interior home lighting.
Compact fluorescent lightbulbs have the very alarming problem of mercury exposure should one of these nasties ever break in your home. CFLs also pose an environmental threat to soil and water surrounding landfills as few folks recycle their CFLs choosing instead to throw them in the garbage for their unsuspecting garbage collector to have to deal with sans mask and gloves.
What about LED (light emitting diode) light bulbs in comparison? I’ll give you the good news first.
LED bulbs are indeed energy efficient. End of good news.
The bad news is that they are not in any way a better choice than CFLs for your health or the environment.
How depressing! It seems stocking up on your incandescents is the only way to go at this point to tide you over until a nontoxic solution becomes commercially available – besides candles, that is!
LED bulbs Contain Toxic Heavy Metals
A study by the University of California Irvine found LED bulbs to be loaded with lead, arsenic, and/or nickel. These heavy metals are used to create the LED artificial light. This is quite different compared with the harmless, heated filament in traditional incandescent bulbs.
The high intensity red LED bulbs used in full spectrum infrared saunas contained the most arsenic. Low intensity red lights had high amounts of lead. White bulbs used for home lighting had lower amounts of lead but worrisome levels of nickel.
Fortunately, unlike CFLs, LED light bulbs are not as fragile or likely to break in the home environment, However, LEDs still need to be treated as hazardous waste. Broken bulbs in landfills threaten soil and groundwater with contamination.
Similarly, anyone unfortunate enough to break a LED bulb is advised to don a mask and gloves and sweep up the hazardous mess with a specially made broom. The team of scientists also recommended safety gear for crews who respond to car crashes as LED technology is utilized for car headlights and traffic lights now.
LED Bulbs and Too Much Blue Light
Perhaps the worst thing about LEDs is the artificial light pollution they create in a home or work environment.
Standard white LED bulbs create light that favors the blue spectrum. Exposure to this type of light after sundown disrupts circadian rhythms to the detriment of the deep, restorative sleep we all need. This is why sleep experts recommend a “no screens” policy especially for children 1-2 hours before bed. Too bad they don’t include warnings against using LED bulbs in the home too. Most parents are completely unaware how dangerous LED light is to long-term health. More on how too much blue light is wrecking our sleep in this article on biohacking your way to deeper slumber habits.
In essence, using LED bulbs introduces the serious problem of light pollution into your home environment. It’s a very unhealthy, unbalanced type of light to be exposed to on a daily basis particularly after sundown.
The only upside to LED bulbs is when you use them on the outside of your home. The cooler blue light tends to not attract as many insects!
What to Do if you Can’t Get Away from LED Light Pollution?
What to do if you can’t get away from LED light pollution because of frequent traveling or working late in an LED lit office?
Some people I know are donning special blue blocking glasses at sundown to combat the problem. These glasses prevent LED blue waves from reaching the eye so they don’t disrupt circadian rhythms. The bonus is that using these glasses allows you to work on your computer, watch TV or use your phone after sundown without sleep disruption too.
Do you use LED lightbulbs in your home? Will you be switching back to old fashioned incandescent bulbs now that you know they are bad for your health?
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
1000bulbs.com/Incandescent_Light_Bulbs
umm, somebody tell me again; what’s so bad about the incandescent light bulb? Did somebody die?
help me clear up mercury exposure part. i’ve done my search and none actually explains why it’s so much of a taboo.
You breathe it in.
I realize I’m posting on an article from a few years ago, but there are some points I want to add for future readers. (And as I write this, Jan. 8, 2014, incandescent bulbs have just become illegal to manufacture or import in the U.S.)
In terms of using bulbs in your home, in regard to toxicity concerns LED bulbs are *far* safer than CFL’s. This is because the mercury in the CFL, if you break it, is released in the find powder, and you can break it in, and the fine powder scatters in the air and around the room. With an LED, while it is true that elements of a certain level of toxicity are present in some of the components – the big difference is that they are *components*, solid pieces of metal and plastic, and are thus not going to just dissipate into the air and around the room like the fine powder in a CFL does. So while it is true that you should take care with how you dispose of a broken or no longer functioning LED bulb, its level of being a health hazard in the home is far less than for a CFL. Finally, there is also the fact that LED bulbs are a very new technology (I don’t think LED bulbs for home lighting use even existed before 2010), and the technology is still evolving and part of active research into LED light production as well as improvements to manufacturing techniques, and the reduction of the usage of elements of higher toxicity is ongoing.
You seem to be the only one to get to the nub of it: LED lights are safer in the home because when they break they do not discharge toxic vapor as do CFLs.
LEDs have lead & arsenic, and CFLs have mercury, but only in the CFL is the heavy metal in vapor form – poisoning you immediately.
Even when broken, it appears (correct me if I’m wrong) that LEDs can be disposed of without poisoning yourself.
Another issue many seem to be ignoring is that, while the light from LEDs is much better than the ugly light form CFLs, it is still not exactly the same as the light from an incandescent. They might both be “yellowish”, but the light from LEDs is almost a sort of neon fluorescent glow, with a slight pinkish tint. It just somehow lacks the warm pleasing glow of an incandescent. LED light can also make the colors in your room look a little greyish and dead. Just look at a red rose (or skin tones) under LED light and compare it to incandescent. There is a noticeable difference.
I would say you’re buying the wrong brands then. We have LED lights and they look absolutely fine, no pinkish or greenish hues.
Then again I am commenting in 2015 and they’ve come a fair way since then!
Since this post is so old, I doubt you’ll see and/or respond to this comment, but I wanted to put it out there just in case.
Burning coal releases small amounts of mercury. Burning coal is where we (USA) get almost half of our electricity. If you take into account the amount of emissions you’re NOT putting into the air by switching from incandescent to CFL, then the amount of mercury reduction you cause is greater than the amount of mercury in the CFL. In other words, even if you took all the mercury from a spent CFL bulb and put it into the atmosphere, you would still be emitting less mercury than if you used an incandescent bulb.
And as for LEDs, I don’t know where you got your crazy information. They’re not classified as hazardous waste, and most of them are produced with very little hazardous materials (do your research before purchasing your bulbs and you’ll easily be able to determine which ones are the safest…and they’re all safer than incandescent).
I really doubt that. CFL’s can cause many health problems like migraines and ringing in ears. Stay AWAY from these bulbs.
As for LED’s I’m not sure about those. But if they have health problems, be assured that the government will pull a sheet over those too.
Why don’t we all just stick to sunlight?
well cause it gets dark at night silly.
I’ve read this professor’s report and listened to his discussion of it on the radio. The buzz words do not reflect the study. He often does not cite specifics of his testing, but when pressured:
a. Red LEDs (not white for lighitng) contain very small levels of arsenic. If you’re using red lights to light your home, there are larger problems for you than trace amounts of aresenic. I recommend you also avoid apples and treated lumber. To get to the arsenic one must boil the package in some type of acid – striking with a hammer may not work well, LEDs are notoriously solid state devices (unlike fragile CFL’s).
b. The indicated amounts of Lead in the bulbs this person found are telling, in current manufacturing the term lead free solder has meaning. Electrical boards used to contain a lot of lead, and it was eliminated through great expense to European and North American manufacturing. Even in China the higher end factories have banned lead.
c. Other heavy metals – similar to (b) RoHaS standards removed these metals from the electrical circuit boards years ago.
I suggested to the study’s writer to stop the intellectual fraud (red lighting) (suspicious levels of lead) and reveal the products tested, when, and where they were purchased. I can suspect it was a very low cost offshore manufacturer…who like in toys and other commodities does not follow industry standards.
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I think is is funny how you ask people to read your blog with an “open mind” but when it comes to someone asking for proof and how you back up your ” information” you attack them and shows how close minded you are about your so called “holistic” approach. You take advantage of people that are ignorant and are afraid of approching reality. Feel sorry for you and your poor kids, they will be weirdos just like you in a few years. I like to see how you dont need “scientific approach” but when you are able to show some proof you quote one “scientific source”. You cant have both ways, you make no sense and seems that your crazy drinks and meals are damaging your brain cells. Dont need to reply wont be coming back to this “great website”, or maybe in a few months for a good laugh, I do thank you for that because you are crazy.