The Dark Side of LED Lightbulbs

So God spake, "Let there be dark!"
And lo, there was dark....
"Problem solved"; God called it good.

Unless you plan on eating them, this appears to be a tempest in a teapot....imo

link....

I predict that soon science will undeniably find that all things on this planet are hazardous to your health (and are a known cancer causing agent in California). So, forget about going back to candles.

Well they have found that you can burn yourself with a candle or start forest fires or use one to light a cigarette so the odds are California already has them banned and is pushing towards a national and eventual world wide ban as well.

Absolutely agree, GA; everyone should see that, but somehow most of people just stick to the opinions of more charismatic people in the media, eco-nuts or any rebel that opposes to progress, but are not willing to get rid of all their hi-tech gadgets they treasure at home.

I wish to know how the State of California got away with labeling everything as known to be of evil nature.

Jesus Christ ! I did a quick review of the article (couldn't stand to read it word by word) it irritated my eyes.

Oladele Ogunseitan ? That name sounds far more toxic than most of hazardous substances known to man !!!

Science has already found the most hazardous of them all: Homo sapiens.

And she's worried about some little bitty ol' light emitting diode?

Well I guess it's back to burning candles to save the planet...oh wait, combustion generates harmful air-borne byproducts and toxic residue.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

It's sad that the once great publication, Scientific American, has been taken over by people less interested in science and more interested in extreme environmental fear-mongering. This article being a typical example. The LED chip is tiny. The materials are encapsulated in the die in a way that makes them impervious to common solvents. They aren't going to leach out, or be absorbed if swallowed. The amount of heavy metals is tiny. It is irresponsible hype to suggest that LEDs constitute a threat to the environment.

Well put.

It is regrettable that anyone would consider drivel like this
either 'scientific', or 'American'.

The substance of this 'article' peaks at a lowly:

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. '...LEDs contain lead, arsenic and a dozen other potentially dangerous substances....'

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By all appearances LEDs are sealed pretty well in a durable fairly impervious glass shell. Certainly beats the mercury dust guaranteed to become airborne with any CFL breakage.

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. '...LEDs contain lead, arsenic and a dozen other potentially dangerous substances....'

As does the water we drink and in at least one case I know of, expensive bottled spring mineral water - proudly marketed and displayed on the label of ingredients along with (get this) cadmium and other heavy metals.

I agree, some people really have their priorities in the wrong place. And don't get me started about the dangers (sic) of lead in microchips.

SciAm isn't even a memory of a shadow of their former selves. The rag has completely gone to seed in every way. At one time SciAm could rightfully claim to be one of America's top-ranked layman's science journals, but in its present condition the physical magazine serves a better purpose as cat-box liner.

Six days ago the article Proof Claimed for Deep Connection Between Prime Numbers appeared in CR4's Engineering News blog. The link leads to a SciAm article, the bulk of which SciAm quite obviously lifted straight from the pages of the science journal Nature - sans formatting codes. As a result the equations in the article were nonsense. SciAm went ahead and published the piece as-mangled, evidently without proofreading it - but not before including a plug to one of Martin Gardner's old Mathematical Recreations articles about Ulam Spirals. Thankfully SciAm included a link to the original article in Nature, but apart from that and the link to Gardner's column SciAm's mangled version of the article was worthless.

Scientific American? For me the name has become nothing more than a metaphor for everything the magazine is not.

At one time SciAm could rightfully claim to be one of Americathe world's top-ranked layman's science journals ...

If you break open an LED...
I have a cunning catplan...

Let's all not break 'em open
Del

It's not the substance, it's the dose. Water is a health hazard, for example. Will California, or anywhere else for that matter, ban it?

Probably long before they ban pot.