Potential mercury emissions from fluorescent lamps production and obsolescence in mainland China

Abstract

The use of fluorescent lamps has expanded rapidly all over the world in recent years, because of their energy-saving capability. Consequently, however, mercury emissions from production, breakage, and discard of the lamps are drawing increasing concern from the public. This article focuses on evaluating the amount of mercury used for fluorescent lamp production, as well as the potential mercury emissions during production and breakage, in mainland China. It is expected to provide a comprehensive understanding about the risks present in the mercury from fluorescent lamps, and to know about the impacts of the policies on fluorescent lamps after their implementation. It is estimated that, in 2020, mercury consumption will be about 11.30–15.69 tonnes, a significant reduction of 34.9%–37.4% from that used in 2013, owing to improvement in mercury dosing dosage technology and tighter limitations on mercury content in fluorescent lamps. With these improvements, the amount of mercury remaining in fluorescent lamps and released during production is estimated to be 10.71–14.86 and 0.59–0.83 tonnes, respectively; the mercury released from waste fluorescent lamps is estimated to be about 5.37–7.59 tonnes. Also, a significant reduction to the mercury emission can be expected when a collection and treatment system is well established and conducted in the future.