It Ain't Easy Saving the Planet

So you thought buying a bunch of those florescent light bulbs was going to save the planet and save you money, and you could feel good about it? Think again.

I heard recently about the mercury in these things being a problem at the landfill. Since environmental wackos have been playing "Chicken Little" since the days of DDT, and being the environmentally contemptuous planet-wrecker I am, I thought, "Who gives a rip."

Now I find out there's a health hazard inside my house.

From WorldNetDaily:

So, last month, the Prospect, Maine, resident went out and bought two dozen CFLs and began installing them in her home. One broke. A month later, her daughter's bedroom remains sealed off with plastic like the site of a hazardous materials accident, while Bridges works on a way to pay off a $2,000 estimate by a company specializing in environmentally sound cleanups of the mercury inside the bulb.

Here's another incident:

Elizabeth Doermann of Vanderbilt, Tenn., had a similar experience. After her CFL bulb broke – because the cat knocked over a lamp – she didn't call Home Depot. Instead, she did what she had always done when old-fashioned incandescent bulbs had broken. She vacuumed up the mess.

"If I had known it had mercury in it, I would have been a lot more careful," she told the Tennessean. "I wouldn't have vacuumed it up. That blew the mercury probably all through the house."

The warnings on the packages of some of the new bulbs are in fine print – hard to read. They are also voluntary, with many bulbs being sold and distributed with no disposal warnings at all.

Practically every light socket in my house has one of these things. I didn't buy them to save the planet (surprised?); I just wanted to save a little money on electricity and not have to put in new light bulbs as often.

Now I find out about this? Hmmm. Looks like I'll have to go back to destroying the planet the old fashioned way: with Edison bulbs.