Junk Science: Light Bulb Lunacy

Fox News ^

[Sub-Driver]

paging Algore...

[P-40]

If it dropped and shattered on a carpeted floor, she must have some seriously high ceilings.

[2banana]

Soon - trial lawyers will sue this industry into oblivion...

[Flash Bazbeaux]

The amount of mercury in a CF lighbulb is quite small. She should have just opened the windows and run a fan. The subtitle of this article should have been “how can I spend the most possible money on next to nothing?”

[Obadiah]

Soon - trial lawyers will sue this industry into oblivion...

That would appear likely. "If you've been injured in a fluorescent light bulb accident, call 1-800-screw."

[xcamel]

This is hilarious...
I replaced 35 bulbs in my house in Lapaz, mx. for about $2 each. the newest bulbs have an anti-shatter coating on the glass tube - but good luck finding them in the US yet.
(Note: CFE electric rates are mighty high compared to the US)

[CertainInalienableRights]

If it dropped and shattered on a carpeted floor, she must have some seriously high ceilings.

Perhaps it hit something on the way down, like the edge of a table.

[Oztrich Boy]

A misfortune turned into a disaster with the help of government.

[Reaganesque]

This is all entirely unnecessary as led and other lighting technologies are poised to make incandescent and compact fluorescent lights obsolete. Liberals just want to be seen as leading the parade.

[P-40]

It must have. We installed the covered ones...but more for looks than safety. At least they are not like the old florescent tubes!

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

"She should have just opened the windows and run a fan."

While running a vacuum equipped with a HEPA filter (which most have these days). If they were ^really^ concerned about the Mercury, they could have covered the spot with Gold Bond (tm) powder (Mercury adsorbs to Zinc) and then vacuumed the area.

[P-40]

C Crane caries some good ones. A bit expensive still but they are coming down.

http://www.ccrane.com/lights/led-light-bulbs/index.aspx

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

It’s my understanding that metallic mercury is actually harmless. Mercury compounds, e.g.; mercury-chloride are highly toxic, otoh. As long as she doesn’t scrub her daughter’s room with Clorox, she should be ok.

[DustyMoment]

My own experiences with these CFLs have drive my wife and I back to incandescent bulbs. Not only did they not last as long as the average incandescent bulb, we had experiences with them actually starting to smolder in the socket when they died.

If legislators with too much time on their hands and not enough to do decide to mandate a requirement that bans incandescent bulbs, I will be buying a boat load of them before they disappear from the market. This is another one of those Law of Unintended Consequences things where an increase in home fires due to these bulbs and the numbers of environmental health issues related to them breaking will be the reward for “feel-good” laws that lack good science.

Plus, if one of these bulbs breaking in a home creates an environmental health hazard, what will the landfills be like with hundreds of thousands of them thrown out? How much environmental damage will we leave behind for our descendants to clean up?

Inquiring minds . . . . . . .

[P-40]

what will the landfills be like with hundreds of thousands of them thrown out?

We've been throwing the tube form of florescent lights in the landfills for years.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

We’ll eventually be disposing billions and billions of CFL mercury bombs. Much of the mercury from discarded and/or broken CFLs is bound to make its way into the environment and give rise to Superfund liability, which in the past has needlessly disrupted many lives, cost tens of billions of dollars and sent many businesses into bankruptcy.

Nice thing about environmental law is that liability is "joint and several", meaning any entity responsible for any portion of the cost can be held liable for the entire cost. So basically, dump HomeDepot, 'cause in five years they're gonna be looking at an eleven figure lawsuit brought by the next John Edwards.

[Obie Wan]

Just what we need. Another government mandated ban on something.Where would all us kiddies be without the govenment telling us how to live ???

[Citizen Tom Paine]

I started to shift to compact fluorescence lights as soon as they came out. I was hoping for lifetimes of about 10,000 hours. IMHO their average lifetime is comparatively short. I, to the best of my knowledge, have never broken one. They occasionally malfunction in non-standard manners. I tend to feel them around their base and if they are hot to the touch, I will replace them.

I use them to reduce the electric bill. Their price has declined recently.

[Nextrush]

They shouldn’t be forcing people to use the bulbs.

I use some in my home because they use less watts and I figure that will let someone else use those watts and save me a few dollars a month, too.

As you may know the envirowackos aren’t cooperating with building new power plans, so it might be good to stretch the watts we got left.

Government, butt out please.

[PGalt]

Thanks for posting. Very interesting. Home Depot gave away a million of these last Sunday.

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2007/04/19/home-depot-to-give-away-compact-fluorescent-bulbs-this-sunday/

In light of this article, when a disaster occurs they also sell the duct tape and plastic to seal off your room. If multiple free light bulbs break in homes appraised at less than $10,000 they will also sell you 2 x 4’s, plywood, hammer, nails, concrete, windows and doors.

If you live in an old small trailer or a one room apartment...RUN.