LM741N writes "Gallium Arsenide has now been listed as a carcinogen. http://www.oehha.org/prop65/prop65_list/Newlist.html Given the increasing usage of gallium arsenide, the main constituent in LED's, and their recent championing as more efficient light sources in recent news stories and Slashdot, there may be significant environmental concerns as related to their disposal. Morover, workers in industries using the substance may be at risk of cancer as well.
Thus arguments that LEDs are more environmentally friendly than fluorescent lights containing mercury may be totally specious."
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No problem: the high-powered Blue, Green, and white LEDs are actually made from Indium Gallium Nitride or just Gallium Nitride. The high-powered red and yellow ones are made from Indium Gallium Aluminum Phosphide.
But even so, the active LED crystal is tiny, very hard and very inert... certainly very much safer than the mercury and the rare earth phosphor dust that the public is exposed to when a florescent tube is broken. ("Mad as a hatter" = mercury poisoning)
Hysteria ??!!! (Score:1)
No problem: the high-powered Blue, Green, and white LEDs are actually made from Indium Gallium Nitride or just Gallium Nitride. The high-powered red and yellow ones are made from Indium Gallium Aluminum Phosphide.
But even so, the active LED crystal is tiny, very hard and very inert... certainly very much safer than the mercury and the rare earth phosphor dust that the public is exposed to when a florescent tube is broken. ("Mad as a hatter" = mercury poisoning)
The manufacturers of all semiconductors (i