Posted on 04/30/2007 5:37:31 AM PDT by ncphinsfan
How much money does it take to screw in a compact fluorescent light bulb? About US$4.28 for the bulb and labour -- unless you break the bulb. Then you, like Brandy Bridges of Ellsworth, Maine, could be looking at a cost of about US$2,004.28, which doesn't include the costs of frayed nerves and risks to health.
Sound crazy? Perhaps no more than the stampede to ban the incandescent light bulb in favour of compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs).
(Excerpt) Read more at canada.com ...
It is just another scare story from the MSM.
This is wildly exaggerated.
EPA recommendations are to sweep it up and throw it in the trash. There are no requirements to handle it as a toxic waste site.
The bulb contains Mercury, and resulted in her stupidity in calling Home Depot and following their advice instead of getting a vaccuum cleaner and cleaning it up herself.
“Aware that CFLs contain potentially hazardous substances, Bridges called her local Home Depot for advice. The store told her that the CFL contained mercury and that she should call the Poison Control hotline, which in turn directed her to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.”
Let this be a lesson: Never ask Home Depot for advice.
Au contraire, it lays out the environmental contradiction that is CFL. Eventually, we’ll all pay a pretty penny when some bureaucracy decides that a mercury-contaminated landfill requires superfund treatment. The case of that Ellsworth woman is illustrative of what can happen.
Sorry to inform you. I work in a lab and when one of the bench techs broke a thermometer, we had to call in the hazardous waste disposal team. Mercury is being taken really seriously. No, I don’t think it will come to that in someone’s home. Just be really careful.
Jeez, how many times is this same story going to be posted under different threads on FR? This has to be at least the sixth such dupe. C’mon Mods!
They’ve been around for a very long time, so this is nothing new.
Large companies are required to recycle the large tube fluorescents. Homeowners are not required to recycle CFLs.
A CFL contains about 4 mg of mercury, a thermometer around 500 mg.
In California, you must recycle them. The trash police simply can't enforce it.
If you break one of these things, sweep it up and don't tell anyone, ever.
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Some of the new bulbs are down as low as 1.4 mg now...a drop the size of a period.
From the reports on the Ellsworth woman, she over reacted and all anyone did was "suggest" she do the cleanup. The agencies backed right off when pressed with the abusrdity of it all. But you just wait, there will be no such public pressure whent he macro level cleanup is forced upon us in the future. And I'll wager it will make $2000 a buld look cheap.
Gee what did people do when they broke one of those 36 inch floresent tubes that are in those shop lights you put in the garage?? Those have been around forever. If a floresent bulb breaks sweep it up and throw it away. Give me a break!!!
“Just be really careful.”
I wouldn’t have one of those things in my house anyway. These environmental goofballs are telling me that CFLs are the way to go and I’m just saying “No”.
Okay. There’s no federal requirement to recycle them.
State and local regs may vary.
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