The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) was urged Friday to issue rules for the treatment and disposal of hazardous mercury lamp waste, as the country shifts from incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs).

Environment advocates emphasized the need for stringent rules for the safe collection, treatment, and disposal of lamp waste as the country is due to phase out inefficient incandescent bulbs this month.

During the Philippine Energy Summit in 2008, President Arroyo ordered the phase out of incandescent bulbs to be replaced with energy-efficient CFLs that typically contain one to 25 milligrams of mercury

“We are deeply concerned with the massive switch to mercury lamps for energy efficiency that is not matched with adequate consumer education on toxic risks and a functional system for managing lamp waste, especially among residential and commercial users, to prevent adverse health and environmental impacts,” Ecological Waste Coalition (EcoWaste)’s Project PROTECT (People Responding and Organizing against Toxic Chemical Threats) coordinator Thony Dizon said.

“The widespread practice of tossing broken or spent mercury lamps in regular domestic waste stream, as if they were ordinary discards, and their recycling in uncontrolled conditions can expose informal recyclers and their communities to mercury,” he added.

University of the Philippines-National Poison Management and Control Center head Dr. Lynn Panganiban said that mercury exposure occurs when the pollutant makes direct contact with a person through air inhalation, food consumption, water intake and skin absorption.

DENR-Environmental Management Bureau chief of the chemicals management section Angelita Brabante described mercury and mercury compounds as toxic to aquatic life even at low concentrations and that the inhalation of mercury vapors and the ingestion of methylated forms of mercury can cause neurological disorders.

In a government data on mercury lamp waste disposal, EcoWaste said 88 percent of households, 77 percent of commercial establishments, and 33 percent of hospitals disposed their end-of-life mercury lamps as domestic waste.

Under the Republic Act 9003 (Ecological Solid Waste Management Act) and Republic Act 6969 (Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Wastes Act), waste containing toxic constituents such as mercury should not be mixed with regular waste and should be separated and subjected to appropriate hazardous treatment and disposal.

A study by the Mercury Policy Project in 2009 and co-released in Manila by environment groups Ban Toxics, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, and the EcoWaste Coalition showed that the burning of mercury-added products in waste such as mercury lamps emits upwards of 200 tons of mercury to the atmosphere annually.