Did You Know?

I do not like CFL Bulbs. For all the good they do they sure do balance it out with the bad that they put out there. GE claims "Because there is such a small amount of mercury in CFLs, your greatest risk if a bulb breaks is getting cut from glass shards. Research indicates that there is no immediate health risk to you or your family should a bulb break and it's cleaned up properly."

Okay so maybe there will be no immediate health risks but what about future health risks? If enough of these "green bulbs" break what could that mean for your health? If the greatest risk you face when dealing with a broken CFL is cutting your finger on broken glass why then do the cleanup instructions include opening a window to ventilate your house? If these CFL bulbs are so safe then why is the first part of the disposal information : "Like paint, batteries, thermostats, and other hazardous household items, CFLs should be disposed of properly."? You know the word's hazardous and no immediate health risk don't really inspire confidence from me as a consumer.

How many people actually know how to dispose of these bulbs? Did you know that you are not supposed to be tossing them in a trash can like an incandescent bulb? When disposing of these bulbs you have to seal them in a plastic bag and take them to a special hazardous waste facility. Most people are unaware that they are supposed to be recycling these bulbs instead of just tossing them in the garbage. When CFL's are disposed of in the improper manner the mercury can seep into the soil but not only is that a problem, if the bulbs break while in transport to the garbage facility the workers are exposed to very high levels of the mercury gasses. See, even if the bulbs on an individual basis don't contain large amounts of mercury, in large quantities they can be extremely hazardous to your health.

Imagine, an entire neighborhood uses only CFL's in their homes. One day a tornado blows through and demolishes several houses in that neighborhood, it's gonna take a freaking hazmat team to do cleanup, the entire area would have to be put under quarantine and most likely all the people that live there will get mercury poisoning on some level from the amount of gasses released into the air. I am disturbed by the mere possibility that such a thing could happen. And yet the government wants us to be fully switched over to these awful bulbs by 2012 and anyone caught selling incandescent bulbs will be punished, I imagine fines and jail time are what they'd be looking at.

NPR did an interesting report on these bulbs and the lack of knowledge people have on the problem they present. Personally, I think I'd much rather stock up on incandescent bulbs now and continue using them than risk brain damage from mercury poisoning. If you think about it, CFL's are really a lot more trouble than they're worth.