UPDATE

Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) have been widely accepted as the substitute for incandescent lamps. CFLs find their applications across all end user segments in India now. Within a span of seven years, the CFL market has gone up from 67 million units (in 2006) to about 400 million units and still growing at a rate of 20%. It has been estimated that 60% of Indian households use CFLs including urban, semi-urban and rural areas.

It is a well known fact that CFLs contain mercury. Though the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) issued guidelines for environmentally sound mercury management in fluorescent lamp sector in 2008, however, very little headways have been made in the downstream mercury management of CFLs in India. As a result in most of the cases mercury from discarded CFLs is entering the environment and contaminating the ecosystem.

Further there is uncertainty on notification of mercury standard in CFLs by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) due to the prescribed standards for mercury in CFLs in Chapter V of the E-Waste Management and Handling Rules-2011.

In this context Toxics Link organized a Roundtable conference on Mercury Management in CFLs with the objective  to identify gaps in the exiting guidelines on CFLs issued by CPCB and discussion the issues of standard of mercury in CFLs. The conference also sought to develop a strategy for the better management practices of used CFLs and push for standards for CFLs.

Download Electronic Copy:

http://toxicslink.org/docs/CFL-Meeting-Report-13-March-2014.pdf