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Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs), whose use is estimated to result in a $47 savings in energy costs over the life of each bulb versus incandescents, have had their critics. They take longer to switch on. Regular CFLs won't work with dimmer switches. They can interfere with radios, cordless phones, and remote controls. They also contain mercury, a fact that causes no small amount of concern in light of how dangerous that substance is. Yet the amount housed in each bulb is very small, about 4 or 5 milligrams, which in volume is about the size of the period at the end of a sentence. (By comparison, old-style mercury thermometers contain about 500 milligrams of mercury, an amount equal to the mercury found in 125 CFL bulbs.) And, provided the bulbs aren't broken open, none of that leaches into the home. Like batteries, used CFLs need to be disposed at a toxic waste depot rather than tossed out with the ordinary household trash. Because mercury is cumulative, this poisonous element would add up if all the spent bulbs went into a landfill. Instead, the mercury in dead bulbs is reclaimed at such depots and recycled. As to the potential for harm posed by mercury escaping from broken bulbs, says the King County Hazardous Waste Program: Crushing and breaking fluorescent lamps release mercury vapor and mercury-containing phosphor powder. These can be difficult to contain. Yet the recommended clean-up process does not involve calling in a HazMat team. Says the EPA in its advisory about dealing with broken CFLs: Maine's Department of Environmental Protection concurs, even though they affix additional steps and cautions to the process: The advice proffered by Maine's DEP is interesting, in light of the story about the unfortunate householder whose broken bulb supposedly cost her more than $2,000 in clean-up fees. Brandy Bridges lives in Prospect, Maine, and it was Maine's DEP that sent an expert to her home to test for mercury contamination, then recommended she have a local environmental cleanup firm tackle the problem. The account detailing her experience began reaching us in April 2007 in the form of the World Net Daily article quoted above. It was subsequently repeated in an article published both by Fox News and the Financial Post. All of these accounts drew their information from a 12 April 2007 article printed in the Ellsworth American, a newspaper published in Ellsworth, Maine. According to the Portland (Maine) Press Herald, what actually happened after Ms. Bridges dropped a CFL bulb on the floor of her home is as follows: Whatever occurred in the Bridges home (the Maine DEP has since posted its account of the incident), Maine's DEP is not now recommending householders need bring in an environmental clean-up crews to deal with broken CFL bulbs, even if it is advocating the use of sticky tape, disposable dustpans, and sealed plastic bags. CFLs need to be handled with far more consideration than do conventional incandescent bulbs, if only because cleaning up a broken energy-saving bulb is a more involved process. Consumers should therefore exercise caution regarding where and how they install CFLs in their homes; they should be careful to not break these bulbs as they install and remove them and avoid putting them in lamps likely to be sent crashing to the floor by someone knocking them from a side table or tripping over electrical cords. CFLs save consumers money in the long run, as these bulbs draw far less power (resulting in lower electric bills), and they last longer (so they don't need to be replaced nearly as often). But they also work to save the environment by lessening greenhouse gases. If every American home replaced just one standard incandescent light bulb with a long-lasting CFL, the resultant energy savings would eliminate greenhouse gases equal to the emissions of 800,000 cars, according to the U.S. Energy Star program. Australia has committed to a mandatory phase-out of incandescents by 2010. Ontario has moved to ban conventional incandescent bulbs and other inefficient lighting technologies by 2012. (While homeowners and businesses in that province won't be penalized for continuing to use the older bulbs, it will become illegal for retailers to sell them.)
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