Neon Lights The Good and The Bad Neon

Neon Lights: The Good and The Bad

• Neon is a rare, inert gaseous element occurring in the atmosphere to the extent of 18 parts per million and obtained by fractional distillation of liquid air. It is colorless but glows reddish orange in an electric discharge and is used in display and television tubes. Its Atomic number is 10; • atomic weight 20. 180, melting point -248. 67°C, and boiling point 245. 95°C. Neon lights have been known to be harmful to all living organisms, but helpful for good business. Studies have shown how neon lights may seem to have inert gases that are other wise unable to harm the atmosphere, or us but they seem to have other affects.

• Yes, fluorescents are • more energy efficient overall. To begin with, fluorescent lights have a much longer life than incandescent lights, the fluorescent tube lasts many thousands of hours and its fixture lasts tens of thousands of hours. So the small amount of energy spent building an incandescent bulb is deceptive, you have to build a lot of those bulbs to equal the value of one fluorescent system. Second, although there is considerable energy consumed in manufacturing the complicated components of a fluorescent lamp, it's unlikely to more than a few kilowatt-hours, the equivalent of the extra energy a 100 watt incandescent light uses up in a week or so of typical operation.

• So it may take a week or two to recover the energy cost of building the fluorescent light, but after that the energy savings continue to grow for years and years. So the benefits of this neon lights are for the consumer sake as in selling advertisements and all types of business. However, this cannot compare to the harm it does in our community and our natural environment. • For many years mercury has been used to make paint. , batteries, pesticides, skin cream, dental fillings, and even vaccines. Sometimes called quicksilver, mercury is an extremely dangerous metal which becomes liquified at room temperature. In America’s factories tones of mercury byproduct is poured into the air each year. On rainy days the mercury is carried from the air into ponds and streams

• where concentrations of it are found in seafood of all types.

MERCURY

• Mercury has several • Replacing conventional unique and useful lights with compact properties that have fluorescent bulbs, are led to widespread use. a popular energy It is the only metal conservation measure that, in its pure form, promoted as a way to is a liquid at room fight global warming; temperature. Liquid could create toxic mercury is volatile, nightmares for meaning that it easily unsuspecting evaporates to form a consumers. Compact poisonous vapor. fluorescents and all Mercury conducts other fluorescent bulbs electricity and expands contain small amounts at a constant rate in of mercury, which can response to changes in cause brain damage. pressure or temperature.

• When broken, fluorescent bulbs release mercury vapors into the air that could pose health threats, particularly to small children. Studies have shown that even low levels of mercury can be extremely toxic. Babies who were exposed to even tiny doses of mercury before birth can have slower reflexes, speech problems, and even autism.

• Concerns about compact fluorescent bulbs circulated on the internet after a woman from Maine was told she needed to hire a specialist to clean up mercury dust released when she dropped a compact fluorescent bulb on her daughter’s bedroom floor. The clean up was estimated to cost $2, 000 and was not covered by insurance.

• The Christmas Tree Lights

• Another Cause are Christmas Lights. These fluorescent bulbs that look so pretty on Christmas, can make this your worst holiday to live through. Christmas trees were the items first ignited in an estimated average of 300 reported U. S. home structure fires per year in 2000 -2004. These fires caused an average of 14 civilian deaths, 21 civilian injuries, and $16. 8 million in direct property damage per • These statistics include both real and artificial trees. On average, one in every 22 reported home Christmas tree fires resulted in a death. More than four of every ten home Christmas tree fires are caused by electrical problems or malfunctions. One in four (24%) home Christmas tree fires resulted from a heat source placed too close to the tree.

• Six percent were started • Two-thirds of the home Christmas tree by children playing with fires were reported fire. Holiday lights (or in December, 20% other decorative lighting were reported in with live voltage) were January. During the involved in 16% of the same five-year home Christmas tree period, 80 outside or structure fires. Fixed or unclassified fires portable space heaters began with Christmas trees, on were involved in 6% of average, per year. these incidents. No Two-thirds of these equipment was involved fires were in 47% of these fires. intentionally set. Candles were the heat Fifty-four percent of source in 12% of the outside and home Christmas tree unclassified home fires per year between Christmas tree fires 2000 and 2004. occurred in January.

• When a light bulb of a Christmas tree breaks, you might as well throw away all of the lights. The wire inside of the Christmas tree lights can easily melt and cause an electrical charge throughout the other lights, causing a fire. Also, you have to be careful where you plug in your lights and your trees should always be wet enough because if it does catch on fire, it will not burst into flames so quickly. • There is also a negative to that because if your lights cause a spark from the outlet and touches the tree, wet or not, your trees will still catch on fire. Lights are also containing Lead, which prevents fires from starting, but can cause harm to your body. These are the good and bad of Neon Lights.

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