The EcoWaste Coalition, an environmental non-governmental organization, appealed to lamp manufacturers, importers and distributors to take responsibility for the environmentally sound management of burned-out fluorescent lamps.
At the recent launch of the group’s report entitled “The Toxic Silence of the Lamps,” the group drew attention to the current practices in lamp waste handling, storage and disposal that put the public, especially the waste workers, at risk from cuts with glass shards and from exposure to mercury, a potent neurotoxin.
The group stressed that fluorescent lamps must be safely managed as the mercury vapor in the glass tube could escape if the lamp was broken, dumped, burned or recycled in uncontrolled conditions.
Burned-out lamps are carelessly disposed of, along with household trash, construction and demolition debris, on the streets, dumps, vacant lots and creeks, and abandoned on corners and sidewalks, the group said.
