Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Greens freak out on mercury

Those high efficiency compact fluorescent bulbs save 75% on electricity compared to plain old incandescent "light bulbs". They also contain a trace of mercury, which will be released if you manage to break the bulb. The Boston Globe has some really drastic cleanup procedures in the event of breakage. This part is a howler, " consider cutting out the piece of carpet where the bulb broke." Yeah right. Try explaining the hole in the living room wall-to-wall to your significant other when he/she gets home from work.
This is pure disinformation. Compact fluorescents contain only 5 milligrams of mercury, far less than the amount in thermometers, furnace thermostats, the fillings in my teeth, and plain old fluorescent tubes. If I break a compact fluorescent I'm just gonna sweep up the broken glass and be done with it.

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