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The CFL mercury nightmare
Financial Post ^ | April 28, 2007 | Steven Milloy

Posted on 04/30/2007 5:37:31 AM PDT by ncphinsfan

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To: NonValueAdded
But where does "throw it away" go? Into the municipal landfill

That apparently is the plan for them here. There is a recycling center listed, but I don't plan to drive to that part of town. It is going to take a lot of CFLs to contribute much to the mercury already in the landfills.
21 posted on 04/30/2007 6:11:34 AM PDT by P-40 (Al Qaeda was working in Iraq. They were just undocumented.)
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To: Brilliant

Maybe Home Depot can offer a class on florescent light bulb cleanup. I got nothing I didn’t already know out of their faux painting techniques class.


22 posted on 04/30/2007 6:24:36 AM PDT by sportutegrl (humor alert - I know how Tivo works.)
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To: ncjetsfan

Me, too. I have vision problems and fluorescent bulbs exacerbate them. Hate fluorescent bulbs!


23 posted on 04/30/2007 6:27:33 AM PDT by originalbuckeye (I want a hero....I'm holding out for a hero (politically))
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To: originalbuckeye

When I was a girl, my mother packed up used light bulbs a couple of times a year and took them downtown to the power and light and turned them in for new ones. Mercury has been known forever, and was use by medieval alchemists. We are still around. Nature is the best recycler there is.


24 posted on 04/30/2007 6:33:57 AM PDT by ClaireSolt (Have you have gotten mixed up in a mish-masher?)
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To: ncjetsfan

Save the environment,
kill an environmentalist.


25 posted on 04/30/2007 6:58:43 AM PDT by TheDon (The DemocRAT party is the party of TREASON! Overthrow the terrorist's congress!)
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To: ncjetsfan

The environmentalist’s solutions have often backfired. Cases in point the “clean” gasoline additive MTBE found to be a terrible pollutant, the lightweight economy cars that have increased crash fatalities, the banning of DDT sending millions to needless death from malaria etc.


26 posted on 04/30/2007 7:19:29 AM PDT by The Great RJ ("Mir we bleiwen wat mir sin" or "We want to remain what we are." ..Luxembourg motto)
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To: ncjetsfan

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1825609/posts


27 posted on 04/30/2007 9:01:17 AM PDT by Atlas Sneezed (Your FRiendly FReeper Patent Attorney)
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To: Sherman Logan
"Homeowners are not required to recycle CFLs."

Yet.

28 posted on 04/30/2007 9:03:57 AM PDT by Joe 6-pack
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To: ncjetsfan

Our local Home Depot has a sign up that says to contact some web-site regarding recycling of these light-bulbs. I wonder if you dropped one in the store and broke it if they would close the store and call in the clean-up folks. Pretty expensive overhead I would say.


29 posted on 04/30/2007 9:09:59 AM PDT by Snoopers-868th
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To: Snoopers-868th

I’m sure they would just sweep it up then put out the ‘Piso Mojado’ signs so they could mop.


30 posted on 04/30/2007 9:17:11 AM PDT by P-40 (Al Qaeda was working in Iraq. They were just undocumented.)
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To: theDentist

When my mom was a kid the dentist used to let his pediatric patients play with a ball of mercury to get then to cooperate with the mercury fillings.... they seem to be doing alright.


31 posted on 04/30/2007 9:32:49 PM PDT by Marie (Unintended consequences.)
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To: ncjetsfan

In grade school, we played with mercury in our bare hands in science class...

Mark


32 posted on 04/30/2007 9:45:12 PM PDT by MarkL (Environmental heretics should be burned at the stake, in a "Carbon Neutral" way...)
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To: NonValueAdded
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.

Much like MTBE in gasoline... And the ground water...

Mark

33 posted on 04/30/2007 9:46:47 PM PDT by MarkL (Environmental heretics should be burned at the stake, in a "Carbon Neutral" way...)
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To: Marie

I remember that as well.


34 posted on 05/01/2007 5:16:18 AM PDT by theDentist (Qwerty ergo typo : I type, therefore I misspelll.)
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To: ncjetsfan

I am pretty much skipping out on flourescants unless they are really cheap, I have already used LED lamps at home and in my vehicles, basically they are breakproof unless you really get serious like using a hammer as they are sealed in epoxy. They also last much longer usually rated at 100,000 hours or 11 years, also flourescants lose life in time with the on/off cycles, the more often you turn them on the shorter the life.

Why hasn’t anyone advertised LED as the better alternative? I’m willing to say because the customer won’t need a new bulb until next decade and thats not exactly making the best amount of profit. Flourescants will actually not last as long as an incandescant if its cycled the same amount of times, even Mythbusters proved that though its been known for years by office building maintenance crews, thats why they tend to just leave them on all the time so they will last longer.


35 posted on 05/01/2007 5:25:13 AM PDT by Eye of Unk
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To: Eye of Unk
Why hasn’t anyone advertised LED as the better alternative?

They are still pretty expensive but prices have come down. I'm trying to get some local merchants to at least carry the things. Many people have never even heard of them.
36 posted on 05/01/2007 5:32:29 AM PDT by P-40 (Al Qaeda was working in Iraq. They were just undocumented.)
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To: P-40
Nope. There isn't enough mercury in the things to worry about.

Perhaps not one, but how about millions of them?

37 posted on 05/01/2007 5:39:24 AM PDT by AFreeBird
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To: AFreeBird

We’ve been selling fluorescents for many decades and we are still alive.


38 posted on 05/01/2007 5:41:06 AM PDT by P-40 (Al Qaeda was working in Iraq. They were just undocumented.)
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To: P-40

If I was selling a product I knew had to be replaced at a certain point of time I suppose it would keep a person in business, maybe thats why many products that have an unusual long life span are either high priced for the initial profit gain or are cast in poor light by the mega corporations.

I can just imagine $30 printers with a 5 year ink supply would be a big hit, for maybe 6 months.


39 posted on 05/01/2007 5:49:30 AM PDT by Eye of Unk
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To: theDentist

Speaking of mercury hype, what’s the deal with mercury fillings? Someone I know is lecturing people to have their fillings replaced.


40 posted on 05/01/2007 5:49:48 AM PDT by Larry Lucido (Duncan Hunter 2008 (or Fred Thompson if he ever makes up his mind))
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