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.
This crap needs to be repealed.
If you think that the only problem with Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFLs) is safe disposal .... we’ve got news for you. CFL’s can also be a source of health hazard, toxic fumes and a fire hazard. Ask the Rick Jenkins family in Maryland who had their house burned to the ground because they connected a CFL to a dimmer switch.
http://www.wattworks.com/CFL%20Hazards.htm
While I am no fan of CFLs, let’s keep this in mind.
CFLs have 5 mg of HG or less.
If a million CFLs go into landfill and break and discharge ALL their HG, in liguid form, into the environment ... If I have done the math right ... That’s just about ONLY 2 (two) fluid ounces of HG.
Someone can check my math, but I think I am right.
personally I prefer the light from compact florescent lights (give me a nice blue shift light and I’m in heaven)but banning incandescent is moronic. People should pick whatever type of lighting they pick and pay the electric bills if it suits them.
Personally I’m waiting for full scale LED lights to come on the market. It’ll throw both incandescent and florescent out of the picture for good.
Needs to be repealed.
But it won’t happen.
So why even bother complaining about it?
"Liberals' best intentions lead to unintended consequences."
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.
Ugh, it was bad enough when the rabid leftists passed this around...
http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/cfl.asp
Exactly the point I made to my daughter just last night after I bought new bulbs. I have all ceramic tile floors, so the possible breakage factor goes up. I will continue to use incandescents as long as I can.
Just as they forced us to put bombs in our vehicle dashboards then prosecuted us if we sat children anywhere near them, they forced us to bring poisonous mercury into our houses so they can prosecute us for bringing children into that same house.
WHAT light? If I go out to the garage to get something on a cold night, I have to sit there freezing my toosh off, waiti something.
The enviro-nazis have created bigger stirs over smaller/nonexistent risks.
How many congressmen does it take to screw in a light bulb?
“We like to say “think of the children” but we really don't care how many die to get our agenda made into the iron-clad law of the land. We will not rest until all that you do is under complete government control.
Do you think it bothered us when our totalitarian brothers killed 100 million of you evil dissenters that dared to speak against their governments? It does not bother us now to have children die if we succeed with our aims to save the planet! Even if EVERYONE dies, at least we will have saved the planet. You selfish Conservatives worry about your own species surviving. HA! What about the poor cockroach or the rat that you crazy racist, rataphobe, roachaphobe, speciests try to murder daily!
Their blood is on your hands!
We do NOT care how many children die because of these light bulbs. It is worth it as long as we have our way. We don't like it so much that our own children will die (it's totally worth it to promote the green ideal—ATFER ALL WE CERTAINLY DON'T CARE IF OUR OWN CHILDREN DIE OR LIVE IN POVERTY DUE TO DRACONIAN CAP N’ TRADE LAWS), but we take great pleasure in knowing that the children of your side will die for our cause!
Let the children die and decrease the surplus population!”
(The Green Viewpoint certainly does not represent my own)
Everyone (except epileptics) should try this, ONCE -
put a CFL in a ceiling fan and turn on the fan...
The strobe effect will knock you down.
“...Both UVA and UVB, however, have been found to cause eye damage resulting in CATARACTS...”
Fluorescent light is created by electrical current exciting mercury vapor in either neon or argon gas, in turn producing plasma, which emits ultraviolet radiation. Both UVA and UVB waves are given off in this process, neither of which are safe. According to the American Journal of Epidemiology (1992), fluorescent lights were found to produce more than ten to thirty times the amount of UVB radiation than the sun. UVB rays, the shorter of the two, are far more damaging than UVA, having been linked to numerous health problems, including cancer. Both UVA and UVB, however, have been found to cause eye damage resulting in cataracts.
You’re describing the elitist Greenies there,
but there are some PATHETIC sheep greenies that are doing inconsequential acts like using CFLs and buying “hybrid” cars in order to
FEEL SIGNIFICANT.
Pathetic people, all of them.
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