4Real Forums: Mercury and Compact Fluorescent Bulbs

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Topic: Mercury and Compact Fluorescent Bulbs

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JennGM
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Posted: Jan 29 2008 at 4:30pm \| IP Logged

mandmsmom2001 wrote:

Since we have always done this for the 6 years we've been in this house, we haven't seen a difference in our bill but hope to soon - we changed all of our light bulbs to compact flourescent.

I'm pulling this from another thread to start another discussion.

Dh told me he was disturbed when reading an article about the compact fluorescent bulbs. Incandescent bulbs will be made obsolete by 2012 by Congress and the President. While this looks like a good thing, the fluorescent bulbs contain mercury. I don't have the article dh was reading, but one woman had an experience of a bulb breaking in her daughter's room. The HazMat crew had to come in, and the levels of mercury were many times over the safe amount in her room. This article has some info on the mercury.

I just don't think this is an improvement for the environment. What do you think?

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hylabrook1
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Posted: Jan 29 2008 at 4:40pm \| IP Logged

Our electric company sent us a couple of these bulbs as a free trial. The directions that came in the package gave all sorts of environmental warnings about special disposal instructions for them. Has anyone used them? Frankly, it sounded scary. I don't know what dh did with those bulbs, but I hope to learn more about them before we consider actually using them.

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SusanJ
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Posted: Jan 29 2008 at 5:04pm \| IP Logged

My dh read aloud to me recently the instructions from the Maine Department of Health (or something--we don't live in Maine, so I don't know where he found it). It was crazy. No way would I want one of those broken in my house. I'm also not sure if I can handle a house full of flourescent lights. I had them in my kitchen only in my last apartment and I often got depressed from spending too much time in there.

But maybe I'm overreacting . . .

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Ruth
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Posted: Jan 29 2008 at 5:09pm \| IP Logged

Oh great! we've had some break here. I'm sick to my stomach reading this.

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JennGM
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Posted: Jan 29 2008 at 5:14pm \| IP Logged

I am not an alarmist by nature, but it does puzzle me that this was passed after there has been so much talk a possible link with autism, removing thimersol from vaccines, removing mercury from thermometers...

and now making mercury bulbs mandatory?

Of course, let's not even talk about the money the manufacturers will make having this monopoly.

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JodieLyn
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Posted: Jan 29 2008 at 5:21pm \| IP Logged

they're not making these mandatory though right.. just not allowing incandescent bulbs?

There are LED lights.. not sure if they have them to go in regular fixtures yet or not though.

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JodieLyn
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Posted: Jan 29 2008 at 5:26pm \| IP Logged

ah yes, they are making LED ones.. I found ones that are estimated at a 20 watt output.

http://theledlight.com/mr-dp.html

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lapazfarm
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Posted: Jan 29 2008 at 5:35pm \| IP Logged

Here is the snopes article on this.light fingered
Decide for yourselves.

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folklaur
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Posted: Jan 29 2008 at 5:47pm \| IP Logged

My dh works with lights and lighting. I know we have talked about this, but my sick & stuffy head can not remember what he told me. He is working right now, but I will ask him about it....

guitarnan
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Posted: Jan 29 2008 at 6:09pm \| IP Logged

There's a safe way to dispose of the fluorescent bulbs, but you have to take them to a county waste facility or someplace like that to do it. I don't think this issue gets enough publicity.

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JennGM
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Posted: Jan 29 2008 at 8:13pm \| IP Logged

Thanks for the Snopes link, Theresa. Dh and I are usually the ones to refer others. Our source wasn't an email, so I didn't think to look there.

One of the links for their fact sheets wasn't working, but I still wasn't totally reassured by the epa's instructions on disposal. Yes, low amounts of mercury, but there is a lot of caution I have to do to dispose or clean up a broken bulb.

Like the WSJ article I linked above, it is surprising that they would pick this to change. There are so many other areas I would think could be changed first. This isn't broken or hazardous. And poor Edison, his invention to be put to rest.

I'll also put in my complaint that fluorescent lighting tends to give me headaches.

And while we're saving energy, it will be much darker in our houses.

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Shari in NY
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Posted: Jan 30 2008 at 8:03am \| IP Logged

SusanJ wrote:

I had them in my kitchen only in my last apartment and I often got depressed from spending too much time in there.

But maybe I'm overreacting . . .

I don't think you are overreacting,Susan. I put one of these bulbs in my reading lamp last fall and changed it within the hour. It made my skin crawl. Hopefully, by 2012 they will make one with more user-friendly light!

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Posted: Jan 30 2008 at 9:07am \| IP Logged

Jenn,
Is this on your very excellent "Too Hard" list?

I had no idea...
We have these in our kitchen. I've not really noticed the depressing effect but maybe I need to look into that. I'm definitely thinking twice about them and any other lightbulbs that need replacing...
Why does everything have to be so complicated?

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JennGM
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Posted: Jan 30 2008 at 9:47am \| IP Logged

I don't know what kind of light bulbs countries like Ireland uses, but I tell you it was just so dark and depressing inside every building I visited. Do they have light bulb restrictions?

And how about countries in Europe? I found the same experience when we traveled through The Netherlands, Germany, Slovakia, and Poland. Windows of course, let the light in, and I don't want to replace daylight with manmade light, but wow, it was depressingly dark.

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MarilynW
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Posted: Jan 30 2008 at 9:56am \| IP Logged

Our house has had mostly the compact fluourescent bulbs - I never even thought about it until last year when the boys broke on in their room playing bunkbed baseball (don't ask

)- I panicked when I read all the mercury warnings etc.

But my husband (who read Snopes) calmed me down.

My view is that at some point we just have to stop worrying and trust that God will protect us - otherwise I think we will get to the stage where we are too scared to do anything. If I start worrying about mercury and radon and chemicals in bathwater I think I would go stark raving crazy.

I change what I can and avoid what I can - and for the rest I just have to trust.

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Bridget
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Posted: Jan 30 2008 at 10:37am \| IP Logged

Well you know, we homeschoolers will react to this by dipping our own candles and going 'Tasha Tudor'.

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Posted: Jan 30 2008 at 10:48am \| IP Logged

Bridget wrote:

Well you know, we homeschoolers will react to this by dipping our own candles and going 'Tasha Tudor'.

I'm all for that Bridget!!! Actually I do dip our own candles

JennGM
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Posted: Jan 30 2008 at 10:53am \| IP Logged

lapazfarm wrote:

Here is the snopes article on this.light fingered
Decide for yourselves.

Interesting. Dh just gave me the article and it was from the editor, Steve Forbes, in Forbes Magazine. It did make this economic point:

Steve Forbes wrote:

Our national legislators are banning traditional incandescent light bulbs, where were invented by Thomas Edison more than 120 years ago. By 2014 these bulbs will be illegal. Instead, we'll be coerced into paying six to eight times the price of incandescents for supposedly "efficient" compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) that last longer and consume less electricity. Well, if CFLs are so great, why do we need a law to force us to buy 'em? Why can't politicians set aside their Nanny Bloombergesque dispositions and let the markets work?

Elizabeth wrote:

Jenn,
Is this on your very excellent "Too Hard" list?

I had no idea...

No, but I guess it should be. I am fighting the change because I just don't like the darned things.

MarilynW wrote:

Our house has had mostly the compact fluourescent bulbs - I never even thought about it until last year when the boys broke on in their room playing bunkbed baseball (don't ask )- I panicked when I read all the mercury warnings etc.

But my husband (who read Snopes) calmed me down.

My view is that at some point we just have to stop worrying and trust that God will protect us - otherwise I think we will get to the stage where we are too scared to do anything. If I start worrying about mercury and radon and chemicals in bathwater I think I would go stark raving crazy.

I change what I can and avoid what I can - and for the rest I just have to trust.

You're right, of course, Marilyn. I guess I'm more upset about the FORCED change than the mercury. I don't like the mercury aspect and that compounds my frustration. I'll take your advice and not worry...

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lapazfarm
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Posted: Jan 30 2008 at 11:32am \| IP Logged

I liken the forced change to changes that will inevitably have to happen in the auto industry, regulating fuel efficiency. You would think that the price of gas alone would encourage consumers to buy more fuel efficient autos, but that just isn't happening. (I could go into the many reasons why, but I will hold my tongue). So eventually the govt will step in and "force" us to change by increasing efficiency standards for manufacturers, in effect "outlawing" gas guzzlers. Many of us will balk, call it govt interference with our personal choice of automobile, but really, it is just regulations enforcing reasonable standards.
With the incandescent light bulbs, you could call it "outlawing" them, but really it is just increased efficiency standards, which incandescents simply are not going to be able to meet.We have an ecologically and economically viable option with compact fluorescents (and soon with LEDs)but folks are just resistant to forking over the higher initial price, even though they will end up saving $$ in the long run, reduce carbon emissions, and overall mercury emissions as well if we dispose of them properly. It is a win-win, but we do like our disposables in this country, don't we?

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marihalojen
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Posted: Jan 30 2008 at 11:35am \| IP Logged

Bridget wrote:

Well you know, we homeschoolers will react to this by dipping our own candles and going 'Tasha Tudor'.

But then they'd have to be Soy Candles as the toxins from Paraffin Candles are so, well, toxic!

I feel like writing a Give a Moose a Muffin parody now, anybody else?

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