Study Says 74Kg Mercury Released From 14.9M Lamps In Capital In 2014 A study has esti mated that 14.93 million com pact fluorescent lamps re leasing approximately 74.65kg of mercury were dis posed of unsafely in Delhi last year. The figure was ar rived at through extrapola tion from Delhi's population data and CFL usage trends based on a random survey o households and large estab lishments by Toxics Link, an environmental NGO. The study released on Tuesday also found that 82% of consumers throw broken compact fluorescent lamps directly into dustbins while the rest sell them as scrap in absence of authorized CFL recycling units in the capital. Findings from the study `The dark end: CFL needs bet ter management', highlights how the Central Pollution Control Board guidelines drafted in 2008, are flouted with impunity as no infras tructure has been put in place to address the pollution from mercury in CFLs. There is no binding regulation for safe disposal of CFLs in India. Even short-term expo sure to mercury can lead to several health impacts. Ac cording to a World Health Or ganization publication (2007), inhalation of mercury vapour can affect the nerv ous, digestive and immune systems, including lungs and kidneys, sometimes fatally .“Shockingly , recyclers were found to be washing CFL bulbs in boiling water to clean the white coating and throwing away the water containing mercury in open drains,“ Piyush Mohapatra of Toxics Link said. In Delhi, the team surveyed about 180 households--71.7% from middle income groups. About 93.9% use CFL because they consume less power. About 39.4% want to replace all lights with CFL, but 29.4% are not willing to change over to CFL.However, 30% of those surveyed are unaware that CFL contains mercury . About 87.9% of respondents were aware that CFL ought to have separate disposal methods.Of 82% who claimed they disposed CFL in dustbins, 37.2% said they dump these in the nearest bin using bare hands and sweep away the fine glass that cannot be picked up. In Bhopal, only 90 households were surveyed. But even they were clueless about how to dispose CFLs. Malls, too, are giving spent CFLs to kabadiwalas on a monthly or bi-monthly basis. However, most malls are open to partnering with an authorized agency for their safe disposal. Many countries have implemented the Extended Producers Responsibility (EPR) policy for CFL where the manufacturer takes care of disposal. In the US, manufacturers have to hand over spent bulbs to an authorized recycler. In the European Union, manufacturers have set up a collection system, while in Taiwan, retailers act as collection centres. The RH Khwaja committee report to the ministry of environment, forest and climate change, titled `Roadmap on Management of Wastes in India', recommends implementing EPR in India. “EU has one of the best collection systems. The authorized recycler collects the waste from community collection centres. People follow this system strictly and dispose of wet, dry , hazardous and other categories of waste in separate containers. Batteries, cans and CFL go into the hazardous waste container. The government needs to step in immediately , “ Mohapatra said. Times View Given the extensive use of CFL bulbs for lighting, it is urgent that systems are put in place for recycling them once they are spent. Otherwise, what started off as an eco-friendly option to incandescent bulbs could end up giving birth to an environmental disaster of its own. There are at least two possible ways of ensuring recycling. One of these would be to mandate that those who sell the bulbs will also have to accept them from consumers and then pass them on for recycling once their life runs out. The other is to create government collection centres in localities. Which of the two works better is for the municipal authorities in each area to determine, but allowing these bulbs to be simply dumped with household waste is not an acceptable situation.