Those Energy Efficient Fluorescent Light Bulbs Are Actually "Toxic Time Bombs"

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Mercury is key to making the compact flourescent light bulb. (CFL). CFL's contain mercury vapor and an inert gas such as argon, which zaps the mercury, setting off a reaction that creates light. Each CFL contains 5 milligrams of mercury, enough to cover the tip of a ballpoint pen.

Mercury is dangerous, even in small quantities. If inhaled or absorbed through the skin, it can cause severe damage to the central nervous system.

The disposal of the CFL is nothing like that of it's older cousin, the incandescent bulb.

CFLs need to be taken to a lamp recycler, where the mercury is recovered, processed and sent out to be re-used. But there is no curbside recycling program for these modern bulbs.

If not properly disposed of, these bulbs will end up in landfills, eventually seeping into the ground, potentially contaminating our land, air and water supply.

This information is not readily known by the average consumer. I know I certainly had no idea. The life expectancy of the new CFL's is around 5 years, so experts and government officials are hoping to have come up with an affordable and practical method for the disposal of these bulbs by the time they begin to fail.

."More and more states are starting to ban throwing CFLs away, but on a whole, probably more of these are making it into the trash than are being recycled," said Robinson, the California official. "The two reasons they'll toss them: they either don't know or they don't care. If we can educate the ones who don't know, we can pressure the ones who don't care."

In the meantime, it is suggested that you place the bulb in two zip lock baggies when throwing it out, in an effort to not allow the mercury to seep into the environment.

"Who has time on a Saturday to drive 10, 15, 20 miles to recycle? We're all busy people," Robinson said. "We're adding onto the carbon footprint to help protect the environment, and it's just diminishing returns."

So, should we actually switch to these bulbs? Are we truly helping save the environment, or just adding insult to injury?

According the the EPA the use of the CFL is actually reducing the amount of mercury in the atmosphere. They theorize that the use of incandescent bulbs requires the burning of coal to manufacture greater amounts of electricity to light the bulb, which in turn releases mercury into the air.

The EPA has estimated that the mercury in a CFL added to the mercury emitted from the electricity used to power it is still less than the mercury emitted from powering an incandescent bulb. So they're still the better choice, the EPA's Bergstein says.

Sounds more like a dog chasing it's tail to me.

What exactly did these bulbs accomplish, other than to make the manufacturers rich and open up the potential for private recycling companies to charge the consumer money to dispose of the bulbs?

Not so much, in my opinion.

California has passed a legislation making it a crime to throw away a CFL in the trash. More bureaucracy and potential for legal litigation. That should make the lawyers happy.

What do you think? Do you trust that the EPA is giving you accurate figures on the amount of mercury currently entering the environment, and that the no doubt careless disposal of mercury filled light bulbs that will take place, will have less of an impact on the earth than already exists today?

I wonder.