315 - All Donks in the House and Senate combined
Posted on 09/23/2010 11:58:18 AM PDT by American Dream 246
If not disposed of properly, CFL light bulbs, which Congress is pushing as a preferable and energy efficient alternative to incandescent bulbs, may poison you, contaminate your food and water supply, destroy the environment and kill your children.
If light bulbs were regulated like cigarettes, this is what it might say on the side of the box of “environmentally friendly” bulbs that you just picked up at Target.
The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 banned almost all use of incandescent bulbs (the normal looking ones that pop up over cartoon characters’ heads in moments of brilliance) by 2014. They are to be replaced by more energy efficient bulbs. Currently, for lack of better technology, CFLs are the heir apparent.
According to the EPA’s website, CFLs “[use] about 75 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulbs and [last] up to 10 times longer.” So if you still secretly want to be Captain Planet — which, let’s face it, we all do — it seems like the right product choice to go about being a hero and taking pollution down to zero.
Here’s the problem: CFLs contain mercury, which, in high concentrations, is poisonous. When a bulb is in use, it’s a non-issue, since the mercury is safely contained in the glass tubes. But when a light bulb comes to the end of its life, whether by natural or violent causes, things get tricky.
If a light bulb breaks, as The Daily Caller reported last week, you basically have to call out the HAZMAT team. Sometimes, light bulbs simply fizzle out and die. At which point you probably climb up on a ladder, unscrew the bulb, replace it with another one, and dump the old one in a trash can.
No matter how careful you are, somewhere between your kitchen and the landfill, breakage is inevitable. Says Rick Cochrane of Waste Management, “it’s going to break in an uncontrolled environment somewhere,” and that puts people in danger — the garbage man, the janitor, your dog who sticks its head in the trash can looking for food — and it also contaminates the environment. According to the EPA, “Even very small amounts … can accumulate and cause environmental problems. Such environmental contamination can linger for decades”
“Because the amount in each bulb is so low,” Paul Abernathy, executive director of Association of Lighting and Mercury Recyclers, says, “people tend to not really think of that as a huge environmental crisis. However, because there are so many bulbs that are broken that way — we have estimated that there may be more than 500 million bulbs that are broken that way — so it does add up to a significant amount of mercury.”
The takeaway is that, if you like to eat fish, drink water or breathe in areas where there are trash cans, it’s in your best interest to recycle a CFL. If you don’t know how, there websites that can help you out. Earth 911comes highly recommended: The website functions as a database that can help you locate the nearest recycling facility that takes CFLs. Recycle-a-bulb has a similar feature.
Did you know any of those sites existed? Neither did we. More importantly, what would have motivated you to go look for them?
This is the fundamental problem with CFL disposal: The information is there, but it has not been adequately publicized, and there’s no motivation to go out and find it.
According to the EPA, they have been working with manufacturers and vendors to promote CFL recycling, as well as providing for the “development and implementation of mercury lamp recycling outreach programs. Grant recipients implemented highly visible outreach programs to promote proper recycling of mercury-containing lamps.”
While praise for CFLs is easy to find on the EPA’s website instructions on how to dispose of them are not on the CFL page; rather, they can be found in the “Mercury” section of the EPA’s website, a placement that requires you to know that CFLs contain mercury in the first place.
Manufacturers post warnings on the boxes of bulbs, but who actually reads instructions — especially on something as self-explanatory as a light bulb? Besides, Abernathy points out, even if you do, are you really going to remember them five years down the line when the bulb finally burns out?
Perhaps as a result, the danger posed by exposure to mercury simply doesn’t seem to be on the radar. Thom Metzger, director of communications at NSWMA, the trade association representing people who collect garbage, told TheDC, “I’m somewhat less concerned about a mercury release; I’m more concerned about someone getting cut [by glass].”
As if there weren’t enough problems already, recycling CFLs is expensive, both for the consumer, who has to go out and find a recycling drop off, or shell out $16.95 for Waste Management’s Think Green Home Recycling Kit, and for the people who do the recycling. “There’s not enough value in the recovered materials,” says Cochrane. “In fact there’s a net cost.”
Lastly, there is simply no way to force people to recycle CFLs. Even if there’s a law requiring it, as in California, how can you make sure people comply, short of installing hidden cameras and picking through people’s trash?
At what point do the costs outweigh the benefits? How many people does it take throwing CFL bulbs into landfills before the amount of mercury contamination is so harmful that the energy savings aren’t worth it?
It’s a question no one seems to be able answer. Until they can, pick your poison.
Wow, people should call the congress critters who passed this stupidity to come clean up the mercury mess.
Wassamatter? Don’t you think that congress critters know exactly how to run your life? Have they not already determined the size of showerhead and water supply tank for your toilet you’re allowed to have? (Pretty soon they’ll tell you how many dumps you make take per day.) Aren’t you happy that your welfare is constantly on their minds?
Just think how bewildering our parents’ lives must have been without the benign guidance of the geniuses in Congress.
There fixed it.
I have twice bought those light bulbs and at had one of them in the package already broken when I opened it. That and the fact that I didn’t find they actually last any longer (my house was built in 1940 so the fixtures weren’t made for those anyway) and the fact that I have a 20 month old son and I am back to buying the cheap domed bulbs where I can get a 12 pack at the Dollar General for less money than a two pack of the spiral bulbs.
LED bulbs are the answer, although the “bulb” version is relatively expensive at $20-$30 each, rather than the “directional” LEDs that are great in flashlights or spot lights, and security lights.
Rep. Joe Burton intoduced legislation this month to do just that. Time to start complaining loudly.
This time it really is Bush´s fault.
Lessee... 5 mg per bulb means 200 bulbs for each gram of Hg. And there's 28.3 grams in an ounce, so it's roughly 5660 bulbs per ounce. A million bulbs would contain 1000000/5660 ounces, which is about 176.7 ounces, or 11 pounds of mercury. It's a bit more than you suggested, but not life-on-Earth threatening.
I still agree with your conclusion after having played with many pools of mercury from thermometers and science class beakers.
Someone else, kindly check MY math.
“...and [last] up to 10 times longer.”
Bunk. I can buy four incadescent bulbs for $2.00 or one cfl for $4.00.
The CFL bulbs will last, from my experience twice as long as a regular bulb, not 10 times longer.
So it will cost me $2.00 for four bulbs, or $8.00 for two CFL bulbs for which I get the same ammunt of light.
Besides, the CFL bulbs gives the wife headaches.
I have one cfl bulb out now, I am just too lazy to get it replaced just now. The burned out bulb will go in the common trash so as to pollute the garbage dump.
I remember seeing on the local TV news a few years ago that, when somebody dropped a mercury thermometer on a city street they closed the street for a few days while the guys in the moon suits cleaned up the spill.
While, on the surface, this is farcical, consider the fact that (this is just a guess, but I'm probably close to the mark), the cleanup company is charging in the neighborhood of $100 per hour for each moonsuit guy and paying him minimum wadge. Just another racket to get rich at the expense o the taxpaying citizen.
How many congressmen does it take to screw UP a light bulb?
1/2 ???
***I wonder if HAZMAT has in fact ever been called out for a cleanup. Not that reporters would report it, it would interfere with their night jobs of Democrat Propagandist.***
If one thousand people charged Capitol Hill and each person busted one CFL bulb on the capitol steps you might see some action!
Just to be clear, that 5 MILLIgrams per CFL, not MICROgrams
SO you are correct at 10e-3, not 10e-6; that was my error.
But the result/effect is the same.
We do worse things to the environment with all the energizers we put in the kitchen trash.
I’ll forward that to all the people in China who are going to get Mad Hatter’s Disease from making them and the people that get it from drinking the water downstream from the factory.
LOL
“A million bulbs would contain 1000000/5660 ounces, which is about 176.7 ounces, or 11 pounds of mercury. It’s a bit more than you suggested, but not life-on-Earth threatening.”
So renaming this thread “How many congressionally-approved light bulbs does it take to screw your kids?” may not make much sense.
The sad followers are going to the 10-10-10 that has some positive environment activities going on—recycling, cleaning up, etc....but ruined with AGW propaganda.
It's very creepy to me. It feels like 1984 meets Germany in the 1930’s to see people with the 10-10-10 shirts on.
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