Mercury Vapour Lamps

[Lucky29]

Hey sorry if this might sound a bit silly, but are mercury vapour lamps safe for humans? My cham is in my room, and I just installed a mercury vapour lamp. When I returned ~10min later my room had a bit of a chemical odour...

Do these lamps cause any negative side effects while in use (to humans... I know they aren't after being used because of leftover Hg being found in landfills and water systems blah blah). I'm just curious, I don't want to kill myself with a lamp! lol

 

[SpinyFranky]

As a guess I would say that what you smelt was the last of chemical adhesives being burned off. Same thing when you buy a new oven - they tell you to turn it on for a half hour at full heat - this melts the unnecessary adhesives/chemicals in the product.

If you keep smelling it you may have a faulty product - in which case you contact the manufacturer for a replacement. I have never heard of any bulbs that emit odor, though maybe there is.

Most manufacturers create bulbs to firstly be safe for humans - then for reptiles. Its a streamlined process of safety followed by efficiency. It usually works quite well.

Read the labels on the products packaging - if it was dangerous I am sure they would be required to mention it on the packaging for retail consumer distribution.

 

[Lucky29]

Thanks a lot haha, I'm just kinda paranoid!

 

[SpinyFranky]

No probs,

I would suspect a smell from a new mercury bulb.... just because it is mercury.. hehehe.

But a similar thinking happened when I purchased a new set of zoo med basking spot lamps for the chams - for about a half hour the bulbs had a slight odor to them. However this disappeared the next day and so far has not come back.


Better safe than sorry! I keep all three of my chams in my room as well

 

[rmichaelk]

Hi,
Being in the same room where the bulbs are won't cause you any problems but getting exposed, or should I say overexposed, to the UVB radiation from the bulb could be a bad thing. As long as the bulb is far away from you I would say you are safe.

Michael

 

[lucky]

sometimes, if the bulb is too close to the mesh of the cage it burns the coating, resulting in a weird smell. just a possibility. my snake cage did that when i put a lamp on a new screen top.