The Neighborhood Toxicologist

Friday, February 16, 2007

Yesterday NPR had an interesting story on mercury in those compact fluorescent lightbulbs (you know those odd shaped spiral bulbs that promise to reduce energy use.)

Who knew, unless they read the not-so-fine-print that says : LAMP CONTAINS MERCURY; Manage in Accord with Disposal Laws; See www.lamprecycle.org. But really, who has time to read when they're struggling just to open the plastic packaging without breaking the bulb?!

Anyway, there's lots of good information on the NPR site on amounts of mercury (small - according to the Energy Star site, which says that if a bulb breaks getting cut by a shard of glass poses a greater risk than the potential for exposure to mercury), and what to do to dispose of the bulbs (check out earth911.org), which shouldn't be an immediate problem since they're supposed to last for five years or 8,000 hours. That's right - five years, and if they don't, all you have to do is send in your receipt and UPC (UP-what? And, where are those receipts?!)

But the bottom line, as noted by the EPA is that in the end, using these bulbs (in addition to other measures reducing electricity use) could help reduce overall emissions of mercury, since coal, one of the most common fuels for electricity production, is one of the major sources of mercury released into the environment.

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Some history: Toxicology as a formally recognized scientific discipline is relatively new (mid 1900’s) although the science itself is thousands of years old. Consider the potential results of early trial and error experiences of hunter-gatherers for whom identifying a toxic plant or animal was a life or death situation. Some of the most poisonous substances known today are naturally produced chemicals including Ricin from castor beans or tetrodotoxin from the puffer fish. Early humans’ careful observation of plants or animals with toxic characteristics such as frogs containing curare, were put to use not only for avoidance of toxic substances but for weapons as well. Additionally, many naturally derived poisons were likely used for hunting, medicinals (the Egyptians were aware of many toxic substances such as lead, opium and hemlock as early as 1500 BCE), and eventually for the political poisonings practiced, for example, by the early Greeks and Romans.

As humans sought to better understand natural compounds that were both beneficial and harmful, there was very little if any clear understanding of the fundamental chemical nature of substances. That is, there was no connection between the ‘extract’ or ‘essence’ of a poisonous plant or animal and any one particular chemical that might cause toxicity. In fact, an awareness of chemistry in its modern form did not occur until the mid to late 1600’s[i]. So it is ironic that Paracelsus, a physician from the sixteenth century and one of the early “Fathers of Toxicology” had no clear understanding of chemistry as we know it today. He along with many others at that time apparently believed that all matter was composed of three “primary bodies” (sulfur, salt, and mercury)[ii]. Yet Paracelsus also coined the now famous (or infamous) maxim of the newly emerging discipline of toxicology:

“All substances are poisons, there is none which is not a poison. The right dose differentiates a poison from a remedy.” (Paracelsus,1493-1541)

This phrase and Paracelsus’ name are committed to memory by hundreds of new toxicology students each year and has become the ‘motto’ of toxicology. Interestingly, if one takes Paracelsus at face value, it appears he was referring to potential remedies. This is an important point, since in recent years some have turned this around to suggest that exposure to very small doses of highly toxic chemicals (such as dioxins) might not be an problem! These days most of us are well aware of the fact that overdosing can turn remedies to poisons, even with apparently innocuous drugs such as aspirin and Tylenol.

[i] Ball, P. 1999. Life’s Matrix: A Biography of Water. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, NY, NY.

[ii] Ball, 2001.