Are LED lights hazardous to your health?

Reds are the worst. They have eight times the amount of lead allowed under California law. But all of the light-emitting diodes (LEDs) tested by UC Irvine scientists were brimming with toxins - lead, arsenic and many other potentially hazardous substances - linked to cancer and other horrible diseases and maladies.

?The scientists tested - crunched, leached and measured - Christmas strands, traffic lights and car headlights and brake lights. They reported their findings about the Christmas lights in the January 2011 issue of Environmental Science & Technology and plan to publish a more comprehensive paper at a later date.

Oladele Ogunseitan, chair of the university's Department of Population Health & Disease Prevention, noted that breathing fumes from a single bulb won't give a person cancer. ??

But any exposure increases the odds of developing disease, and most consumers are utterly unaware of any risks from LEDs, he said.

He recommended people use a special broom and wear gloves and a mask when cleaning up a broken bulb.