Fluorescent lighting is the bane of many office workers' existence. But that isn't the only drawback of this form of illumination. The "phosphors" in a fluorescent light (the compounds that actually produce the visible radiation) typically contain such toxic metals as cadmium, silver, europium and lead. A California chemist has synthesized a surprising new compound made of the same elements found in beach sand (including a trace of driftwood) that might provide the basis for more environmentally benign phos-phors. And now a Tokyo-based company, C.I. Kasei, sees a bright commercial future for this intriguing new luminescent material.

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