Amidst noticeable controversy, governments around the world have declared that the days of the incandescent bulb are numbered. Here in Australia the "icon" of household lighting has essentially disappeared from the shelves already.

Other countries planning scheduled phase-outs in the next two to four years, include Argentina, Italy, Russia, the United Kingdom, Canada, the European Union and the United States.

Logical vs Sensible

The current "global warming" hysteria seems to be racing in one direction like a bull at a gate. In response, some “solutions” are being written into law that leave me scratching my head as to their logic.

Take the whole issue around finding more energy-efficient alternatives to lighting, for example. Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) are leading the pack as the preferred “green” alternative.

Did you know that these CFLs contain toxic mercury and that, when disposed of, they contaminate landfills and the environment? But that’s not all. There’s even more issues that make them hazardous to your health just by using them.

Why offer alternatives that may save energy
.. but create more problems?

Compact Fluorescent Lamps such as the one in this photo, may be more energy efficient than the regular incandescent bulb but they are definitely not any safer.

In the event of lamp breakage in your home, how do you feel knowing that in addition to the inconvenience of broken glass you now have highly toxic mercury to deal with?

In February 2008 the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) published a report of their findings after spending months breaking CFL bulbs in a lab; they experimented with various cleanup strategies and measuring toxic “fallout” from the breakage. Please explore the links below.

Maine Compact Fluorescent Lamp Breakage Study Report
For the Full 206 page Report (PDF) from the
Maine Department of Environmental Protection
- CLICK HERE –

Executive Summary 
- CLICK HERE -

For a shorter read, which picks out highlights of the report, please reference the March 17th 2008 article entitled DEP Sheds Light On Bulb Dangers – Portland Press Herald.

The final report admitted basically that the challenges exceeded what consumers and government agencies had first thought.

The Federal and State safety standard for mercury-vapor in the air is 300 nanograms per cubic meter of air. According to the report, the DEP experiments revealed that broken bulbs often created levels that exceeded 300 nanograms and sometimes even exceeded 25,000 – 30,000 nanograms per cub. met. for short periods of time.

The Main Thing To Remember
With CFL or Fluorescent Breakage.
DO NOT USE A VACUUM TO CLEAN UP.
This will spread the mercury vapor and dust throughout the area
and could potentially contaminate the vacuum cleaner itself.

According to the Portland Press Herald article, Deborah Rice, a toxicologist with the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention indicated that “The safety standard is based on long-term exposure for adults in industrial settings. No one knows what is a safe level of short-term exposure for children or fetuses, or exactly how dangerous a broken bulb might be. .. We don’t really know (Ed: what the risks are). .. The only thing we can advise is, clean up as well as you can and recognize when you vacuum a month later, you’ll stir up mercury again.” 

- Cleaning up after a CFL breakage - 
Here is some guidance from the
Environmental Protection Agency on what to do
if a Fluorescent or CFL Light Bulb Breaks
 - CLICK HERE -

Recycling and Dumping:
What about the additional issue now of recycling and/or "dumping" of this toxic material? Don’t we have enough toxins to deal with already?

But wait, there is still another “down-side” that few people are aware of.

Health Impact:
Would  you have ever thought that one of these bulbs could drastically affect a persons blood sugar levels? (more on this in an upcoming post), What about migraine headaches; sleep abnormalities; fatigue and other health problems?

I would like to know why the mainstream “green” pundits seem so reluctant to regard this as any significant issue?

The "Dirty" Secret.

Well, it’s not exactly a “secret”, but recent research is demonstrating that CFL’s produce what is called "dirty electricity".

The following video clip contains an interview by CBC Montreal’s environment columnist, Geeta Nadkarni and Magda Havas, of Trent University, regarded as the leading researcher in the field. Tom Nadas (of EMF Security) provides a demonstration of the "dirty electricity" produced by the CFL’s.

Check it out, you’ll be amazed. (Video Length only 3 min 42 sec)

There is heaps more information easily available on the internet regarding this topic if you care to dig a little. This is all I have to say for the moment regarding the hazards of Compact Fluorescent Lamps.

In Part 2 of this article I’ll pull together some information about what is available as safe alternatives to efficient, energy-saving “green” lighting.

The following has nothing to do with CFL’s at all, but here’s a little quote that caught my attention. It’ll give you something else to ponder over (or not).

Who is more foolish,
the child afraid of the dark
or the man afraid of the light? 
~Maurice Freehill