News

12/1/2008

CFL Mercury Content - Energy Star Standards Update

The September 12, 2008, issue of Inside E.P.A. Weekly Report indicated Energy Star is poised to impose a mercury cap for individual CFL bulbs. This mercury cap will be included in a new specification that is due to take effect December 2, 2008.
Under this spec, CFL manufacturers using the Energy Star label must limit mercury content to no more than five milligrams for a 25-watt CFL and no more than six milligrams for CFLs that are between 25 and 40 watts. In addition, package requirements must include a notice that the product contains mercury and reference a mercury recycling web site.
Even given the new standard spec, the CFLs currently used in the Buckeye CFL Exchange program will have no problem complying with this new requirement.
The 19-watt CFLs that are currently being procured are manufactured by TCP, whose headquarters are in Aurora, Ohio. This size of CFL contains three milligrams of mercury, and the packaging already contains information about mercury and includes that recycling web site.
TCP is also in the process of trying to decrease mercury levels even further. This reduction is helped through the use of amalgam which is added to the glass tube in pellet form and allows more precise control.

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