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Gamedev medical advice thread

Eelco · 2011-11-22T08:23:52

So, I have a medical question I cannot get a good answer to by means of furious googling. And since we all know game programmers represent the top of the line in medical advice, ive got something for you to chew on: I broke a CFL bulb, and im wondering what its effect on me might be. Yes, I know, if you see a CFL bulb break, ventilate, stay away for a bit, and nothing much to worry about. However, consider the following scenario: I bought two CFL's; one had a cracked layer of glass, but as far as I could tell only in the outer cosmetic layer. The coiled up glass containing the mercury seemed fine. The light seemed fine on turning it on, so I figured the inner glass must be intact. A few days down the road, I notice the light color of the cracked bulb is noticably off (shifted towards higher color temps - the mercury is there to modulate it to visible light..), and the overall light production about half of the other bulb. Upon closer inspection the outer glass seems not only cracked, but noticably dislodged from the base (seems like a production error). What triggered me to be reminded of the dubious CFL situation was a strange rash on my arm (I am normally not a rashy person). Further I have a variety of symtoms (dry cough with some bloody pleghm, diahrea without the usual cramps that accompany it, and a general sense of weakness and lack of focus); though nothing crazy and I had attributed it to viral infection earlier. Considering I have been spending about 36 hours out of the 72 since installing the lamp on a mattress directly at ground level (where mercury vapour accumulates), with closed windows and a tight fitting door, and no other means of circulation, my question to you is: Am I backwards rationalizing my rather a-specific symptoms, or should I go see a real doctor and get me some [font=sans-serif][size=2]DMSA ASAP[/font]? Its a tricky question since most information out there seems heavily biased; either crackpot the one way, or the typical more subtle propaganda the other way that only tells you about the best case scenario (break lamp, clean according to guidelines, no biggie). The total amount of mercury ingested varies by many orders of magnitude (from the one decent study ive seen), depending on air circulation and how close to the ground you are, and the important factors all seem to be working against me. Even if only a few percent of the few mg of mercury escaped, I wouldnt be surprised if I took a substantial hit of that. That would be bad, mkay. Any obvious steps I could take? Simple household tests for mercury in carpet or hairs (or complex ones, I have access to pretty much any chemical or instrument I can imagine)? I certainly saved the lamp to sue the shit out of the assholes that made this thing if all my hair falls out over the next week. Or goes the fact that my lamp is still burniing at all prove that there can not have been significant gas exchange between the inner tube and environment? Perhaps over pressure during heating while on allowed gasses to escape, but the under pressure while off was not big enough to let non-noble gasses in and burn the phosporus inside? On a related rant, I feel like the eco-terrorists really won from me this time, in a roundabout way. All else being equal, I tend to assume all health scares are at least three orders of magnitude overblown, because of the whole health-hazard-industrial-complex, but I hadnt realized they are spinning the other way with regard to this issue. I had never stopped to think that if you break a CFL near your face while breathing in, you are a dead man; the only thing that makes these things safe, in a statistical sense, is that 'under reasonable assumptions', you are only going to breath in a tiny fraction of the total contained vapor. Im not buying any more of these things, thats for sure, and why people are allowed to keep them in close proximity to children but are not allowed to just rape them outright is a mystery to me. Oh yeah and to any eco-terrorists out there: thanks for banning incandescent bulbs; at least ill have some sort of last laugh while I run the electricity my overpriced and broken CFL saves through my electric heater to achieve the same purpose, minus the light.

GDNet Lounge Community

Started by Eelco November 14, 2011 08:09 PM

15 comments, last by Krohm 12 years, 9 months ago

Eelco

Author

301

November 14, 2011 08:52 PM

Totally uninformed, unscientific advice: unless you're pregnant or a lot younger than your join date would suggest, I wouldn't worry about it. Unless it kills you outright, mercury is primarily a developmental hazard. On the other hand, if you are pregnant or live with someone pregnant, then you should probably get more educated response.

That sounds about right to me; given the upper bound on my acute symtoms (if they are indeed mercury related), I dont think I will take any permanent damage. Though thats more of an inbetween the lines impression than anything I can back up with data.

Eelco

Author

301

November 14, 2011 08:59 PM

Ah snap, seriously? This topic has 4 posts in it and I happened to respond to the duplicate thread that has no posts?

Yeah, sorry about that. My browser froze and I clicked back four times; I would have expected GD to guard against this, and I dont see how I can delete my own duplicates.

Eelco

Author

301

November 14, 2011 09:22 PM

By the way, I dont quite understand how the safe Time Weighted Average is something like 25micrograms / m3, whereas 1 milligram / m3 is supposed to give you like, instant AIDS and whatnot.

I would suppose the rate of solution into your bodily fluids is pretty much proportional to concentration, and since its halflife is on the order of months, one hour @ 1mg/m3 should yield the same amount of long term AIDS as a full work week at the supposedly long term safe 0.025 mg/m3.

Anyway...

Cornstalks

7,033

November 14, 2011 09:28 PM

[quote name='Cornstalks' timestamp='1321303615' post='4883926']
Ah snap, seriously? This topic has 4 posts in it and I happened to respond to the duplicate thread that has no posts?

Yeah, sorry about that. My browser froze and I clicked back four times; I would have expected GD to guard against this, and I dont see how I can delete my own duplicates.
[/quote]

It's cool, looks like a mod merged the threads.

[size=2][ I was ninja'd 71 times before I stopped counting a long time ago ] [ f.k.a. MikeTacular ] [ My Blog ] [ SWFer: Gaplessly looped MP3s in your Flash games ]

Quat

569

November 21, 2011 05:19 PM

dry cough with some bloody pleghm
[/quote]

Probably not even related to the mercury, but bloody pleghm can be a serious symptom.

-----Quat

way2lazy2care

793

November 21, 2011 05:34 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_poisoning#Signs_and_symptoms

If you start experiencing any of these definitely see a dr (if you don't see one anyway).

If I were you I probably wouldn't worry about it. I've had those bulbs break before and I am still alive.

Krohm

5,051

November 22, 2011 08:23 AM

However, consider the following scenario: I bought two CFL's; one had a cracked layer of glass, but as far as I could tell only in the outer cosmetic layer. The coiled up glass containing the mercury seemed fine

As a side note: maybe it's just me but I'd rather not put AC on anything that is not clearly, perfectly manufactured to standards, even if the defects look mostly cosmetic.

Is it time for a cake joke? Not really...

Previously "Krohm"

Gamedev medical advice thread

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