One of my biggest pet peeves are email forwards full of dramatic facts and huge lies. Actually, that's not what bothers me. It is the people that believe these emails. What happened to critical thinking skills? It is a basic 4th grade function, yet many people can't seem to comprehend the concept.
CFL's. They are the great twisty light bulbs for your house. And they contain mercury (gasp!). So does batteries, so does paint, so does the regular fluorescent lights, so does a thermometer. Obviously the government has banned lead paint because it is too harmful, but they are going to allow toxic light bulbs? No. The amount is trace. It can fit on the tip of a pen. If you want to talk about household toxins this would rank about 25th after bleach, cleaning supplies, and whatever is sitting in the back of your fridge. The most important thing to do with CFL's is recycle them. Keep them out of landfills. Keep the mercury contained, just like you should be doing with regular fluorescent bulbs. Throwing these bulbs into the trash is what is harmful. It can hurt those exposed to the trash and get into our groundwater. Keep it out of the trash, along with all your other household toxins. The instance is small, so small it should not stop you from using CFL's. What can we do about it? Urge companies to fix the problem.
Actually, LESS mercury is used in CFL's than in incandescents. Most mercury in our environment comes from the burning of fossil fuels at utilities that supply electricity. CFL's use less electricity, therefore less coal, less money, less emissions, and less mercury.
Here are the great things about CFL's: If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an Energy Star approved CFL, the US would save enough energy to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year and save the equivalent of 80,000 cars in greenhouse gas emissions. With CFL's, you can save over $30 in energy annually and generate 70% less heat.
If someone asks you about CFL's and mercury, ask them why mercury is bad. Chances are they don't even know. This is something they heard and have decided to follow the lemmings without actually analyzing the data critically.
Oh yeah, Obama is not secretly a terrorist and planning to take over the world once he is in office, Bill Gates is not donating any money every time you forward the email, and there is not a child missing in [insert local town here].
Critical thinking skills. It's a good thing. I am now stepping off the soapbox. Thank you for your time.
CFL's. They are the great twisty light bulbs for your house. And they contain mercury (gasp!). So does batteries, so does paint, so does the regular fluorescent lights, so does a thermometer. Obviously the government has banned lead paint because it is too harmful, but they are going to allow toxic light bulbs? No. The amount is trace. It can fit on the tip of a pen. If you want to talk about household toxins this would rank about 25th after bleach, cleaning supplies, and whatever is sitting in the back of your fridge. The most important thing to do with CFL's is recycle them. Keep them out of landfills. Keep the mercury contained, just like you should be doing with regular fluorescent bulbs. Throwing these bulbs into the trash is what is harmful. It can hurt those exposed to the trash and get into our groundwater. Keep it out of the trash, along with all your other household toxins. The instance is small, so small it should not stop you from using CFL's. What can we do about it? Urge companies to fix the problem.
Actually, LESS mercury is used in CFL's than in incandescents. Most mercury in our environment comes from the burning of fossil fuels at utilities that supply electricity. CFL's use less electricity, therefore less coal, less money, less emissions, and less mercury.
Here are the great things about CFL's: If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an Energy Star approved CFL, the US would save enough energy to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year and save the equivalent of 80,000 cars in greenhouse gas emissions. With CFL's, you can save over $30 in energy annually and generate 70% less heat.
If someone asks you about CFL's and mercury, ask them why mercury is bad. Chances are they don't even know. This is something they heard and have decided to follow the lemmings without actually analyzing the data critically.
Oh yeah, Obama is not secretly a terrorist and planning to take over the world once he is in office, Bill Gates is not donating any money every time you forward the email, and there is not a child missing in [insert local town here].
Critical thinking skills. It's a good thing. I am now stepping off the soapbox. Thank you for your time.
