Green Speaks: Re-Thinking CFL's

Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs (CFL's) are becoming more and more mainstream, and have been proven to be energy and cost savers for some time now.  We even wrote about them here at Mama Speaks recently, and advocates are working to make them mandatory. There's just one hitch: the mercury. 

Upon first reading the information out there about the mercury contained in CFL's, one is led to believe that there's no problem, to simply "just dispose of it properly".  Well that's all fine and well, until you really look closely at the proper disposal of these little devils.  Hearing things like "shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system" and "if clothing or bedding materials come in contact with broken glass or mercury-containing powder from inside the bulb, the clothing or bedding should be thrown away", worry me.  First of all, because I highly doubt many people realize how toxic the CFL's are if they break in your home, secondly because I have big reservations of knowingly keeping something with this toxic potential in my home.  I have small children.  I have a baby.  Is the risk worth it?

There's no doubt that it's a predicament of epic proportions.  Reducing energy, which the CFL's do, will reduce electricity and thus lower the need for coal-burning power plants, which emit mercury by the ton.  However mercury is a known neurotoxin, which even in tiny microscopic amounts can harm brain cells in everyone, especially pregnant women, fetuses and children.  Do I really want the toxic potential in my home?  It's ironic that the EPA defends CFL's by comparing the amount of mercury in dental amalgams, when dental amalgams have recently been proven to be toxic.

And what about the millions of people who likely have not researched proper disposal, and are simply throwing their CFL's into the garbage?  How bad the toxicity depends on where the CFL breaks.  Sitting out by the curb--the air and soil in my neighborhood, in the garbage truck--the workers themselves, in the landfill--the air and streams that affect millions of other people.  And I have to wonder, even if everyone was using CFL's, would the electricity plants really be shut down?  Even reading the government's Energy Star page on CFL's, you wouldn't even know about the warnings on disposal and toxicity unless you notice a tiny link on the right that reads "CFL's and Mercury".  Are environmentalists being uncharacteristically pro-mercury on this issue?

If you do decide to throw caution to the wind and stay on the CFL bandwagon, I urge you to fully read the guidelines for disposal and what to do if a CFL breaks in your home.  It's extensive, and you won't have time to research it after the fact.  Read the CFL-Mercury document from the EPA to get the full story, be sure to keep reading past their tireless effort to tell you that the mercury is a small amount and won't hurt you.

Our family has decided that the risk is not worth it in our home, and we wait for a better alternative to be created, because we DO want an alternative.  As I gather the CFL's and put them in a box in the garage until we can make the 4hr trip to the closest disposal site, I wonder how many other families do such a thing.  I think I won't be taking any more walks on Sunday evening when all my neighbors have their trash and recyclables on the curb.

-Arianne