Here's my story (long)

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Posted by eyespy on September 08, 2002 at 20:02:15:

In Reply to: LOOKING FOR INPUT on UV (experiences) posted by xta on September 07, 2002 at 14:43:55:

OK, here's my saga with MV bulbs. Back in February, I bought one Zoomed Powersun to try. It burned out after just 2 weeks usage, so I emailed Zoomed and arranged to send it back and get a new one under warranty. Monet and Rodin had seemed to have increased appetite and activity levels while under the Powersun so I was eager to get the new bulb. Plus, I hung one 160 watt bulb in between both cages so that I only needed one bulb for 2 dragons, both convenient and inexpensive!

When it came and I plugged it in, it smelled like when the heat comes on for the first time in the fall. I figured it was just dust or something heating up so I didn't worry too much until I saw white powder accumulating on the side of Monet's cage within 20 minutes. She was almost directly underneath that area, standing up with her belly against the glass. I noticed watery-looking blisters on one front foot and took her out of the cage. That's when I saw that both back feet also had these blisters. I called my vet and he said to unplug the bulb and come directly over.

He diagnosed chemical burns and gave Silvadene ointment as a topical treatment, and also drew bloodwork and trace amounts of mercury were detected in her bloodstream . I was to return in a week so he could check the burns and make sure no infection was developing. He recommended I call the county's environmental services department and have the hazardous materials experts come and remove the mercury from my home.

When I got home I called Zoomed, and they at first said it was impossible for mercury to leak from these bulbs, until I offered to have my lawyer send them a copy of Monet's vet records. Then the guy put me on hold, talked to a supervisor, and said that they would replace that bulb as a defective one under warranty but still discounted the fact that it was their bulb that caused the mercury burns. I was still on the phone with these folks when the hazmat team came to the house. They got on the phone with Zoomed, and said they would personally check the replacement bulb when it came and let them know if a mercury leak was possible or not.

It took nearly 3 weeks to get the replacement, and I called the hazmat guys to come over and get the bulb for testing. They plugged it in outside and did collect white powder that was coming from the neck of the bulb onto a plastic sheet. They later tested this and found several different kinds of mercury salts. We did a 3 way call to Zoomed, and they grudgingly accepted to cover my vet bills as the replacement bulb did indeed leak. I asked the hazmat folks to send a report to the FDA in case they wanted to investigate the safety of these bulbs. The FDA never replied.

It took 3 more weekly visits to the vet for him to debride (scrape away dying and infected skin) the burns and the cost was nearly $1,400 for all the bloodwork and the skin repairs. There are orangish scars on her feet, but otherwise she is fully healed. Bloodwork still shows mercury 5 months later, but my vet says it is such a minimal exposure she is unlikely to suffer long-term damage.

In May, when I was looking for an iguana to rescue, I again thought that maybe I would see if other MV bulbs might be a good option for me. I called Active UV and they wouldn't give me any information about bulb design and the possiblility of mercury leakage at all, so I ruled out getting their bulb. Nature Zone told me a fair bit, but as I'm not a physicist I didn't understand a lot of it. However, I was reassured that the mercury was sealed in a separate tube within the bulb and that as long as the glass was intact there was no possible way for mercury to escape.

So I bought 4 bulbs at bulk price. The first 3 I opened are working fine, but the last bulb had a hole in the metal at the bulb neck where something I thought might be mercury had leaked out. It also had a large defect in the glass globe, with another hole in it. The hazmat folks came out once again, took a scraping of what I thought might be mercury, and confirmed that it was. It had already bonded with gases from the air, and they told me as long as I didn't touch it the risk I would absorb mercury was small, but absolutely do not use the bulb, as it would probably explode once it heated.

I tried to contact Nature Zone directly, but their website was down, so I called the vendor where I got the bulbs. They said Nature Zone is very bad at returns, but they are going to take back the bulb and try to find me a good MV substitute after they do a little testing and calling on their own. I'll let you know what they decide to substitute. They said people either love or hate the MV bulbs and they process many defective returns on them. They do not carry Active UV anymore because it was such a hassle getting replacement bulbs. They stopped carrying them before T-rex bought out the company so things may have improved since then, but they just didn't feel like dealing with the hassle if there is still such a high rate of defectives. It was their experience that Active UVs failed a lot more frequently than Nature Zone or Powersun.

I am using ventilated reflector domes with a ceramic socket, rated for 250 watts. They have the heavy duty appliance type cords on them and the UL sticker.

I am still using the other 3 Nature Zone bulbs, as the hazmat folks couldn't find any leakage coming from them. 4 of my 7 bearded dragon hatchling tanks are under these bulbs, and so is Amazon, my iglet. I don't notice any difference in color or activity levels on the beardie hatchlings, but the ones under the MV do have much better appetites and are about a 1/2 inch or so bigger than their clutchmates. I notice a big improvement in Amazon's color, much more blue and yellow is noticeable. S/he is climbing more and trying new foods, and does eat a lot more. However, since s/he was a rescue, I can't say for sure how much of these improvements might be the increased UV exposure vs. improving condition from better caging and nutrition in general.

I hope this is helpful info for your study, and think it's great that you are doing it!

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Re: Here's my story (long) ZooMedCS 09/13/02 (0)