Reply #8: Will it burst your bubble if you learn that LEDs contain arsenic?

[Tesha]

LEDs will be very nice, yes, when they finally match
CFLs for price and efficiency and incandescents for
spectrum and color temperature, but they're no panacea.

Semiconductor manufacturing is a very chemical-
intensive process and many of the LEDs contain
Arsenic (those that are made from Gallium Arsenide).
Not all LEDs, but at least some LEDs. Plus
the electronic controls within the LED lamp
assemblies contain the exact same sorts of stuff
as the electronic ballasts in CFLs. Plus the plastic
packaging of the completed lamp assembly contains...
Plus the plastic shipping packaging of the product
contains...

And, like any electronic device, at least some
of the magical LED lamps *WILL* experience
"infant mortality"; premature failures occurring
long before their (say) 25-year lifetime has
run out.

Tesha