>Hi Ian:
>
>Although some sectors of the flurosescent bulb manufacturing industry
>are trying to move away from using mercury in such bulbs due to
>regulatory pressure, it has been used in small amounts for many years
>in most fluorescent bulbs because mercury vapor -- i.e., in a gaseous
>form -- tends to fill the interior of the bulb at room temperature,
>and this metallic vapor readily ionizes in the presence of an applied
>electrical field, and thus facilitates easier lighting of the bulb
>from cold start and also facilitates lighting of the bulb at a lower
>voltage than would normally be needed (a relatively high voltage is
>briefly needed to fire up a fluorescent bulb at startup.)
>
>And, speaking as an ex-EE and as a scientist, yes, fluorescent bulbs
>tend to emit far more RF-range EMF than incandescent bulbs and for
>several reasons:
>
>1) the solid state circuitry used in most modern low-wattage
>fluorescent bulbs sold as replacements for incandescent bulbs tend to
>emit a fair amount of "noise"; actual amount will depend upon design
>and construction techniques.
>
>2) a fluoresecent bulb, much like a neon bulb, consists of an
>electrical discharge through a plasma -- that is, through hot excited
>gases -- and such plasmas, particularly when under AC electrical
>excitation (as in such a bulb as we are discussing), are very
>"noisy", that is, they tend to radiate an EMF signal at a wide range
>of freqencies ranging from low audio range through the RF range to
>perhaps high VHF range or low UHF range. Such plasmas and their
>non-classical radiations are often considered desirable when
>designing and constructing a device such as a Rife plasma Beam Ray
>device (where the excitation frequencies are carefully controlled and
>modulated).
>
>3) Further, such chaotic plasmas in fluorsecent bulbs as considered
>in item 2 above are widely considered by many to convert a small
>portion of this rather chaotic and incoherent noise energy into a
>so-called scalar or subtle energy form rather than emitting it all as
>classical or traditional Hertzian EMF wavesand heat and light. Many
>folks feel that humans and other life forms are uniquely sensitive to
>such chaotic noise energy emitted in the form of such non-Hertzian or
>non-classical fields, and that these chaotic non-Hertzian or
>non-classical fields can cause disruption of bioenergy systems
>(including the various levels of chi [aka qi] or prana) within the biofield.
>
>with care,
>--Vinny
>
>At 09:40 PM 8/28/2006, you wrote:
> >Thanks, this does fit the symptoms for some people I know, but one thing
> >that has puzzled
> >me before is why is there mercury vapour in fluorescent lights?
> >Ian
> >
> >