http://www.care2.com/greenliving/the-cfl-controversy-continued-who-knew.html
The CFL Controversy Continued: Who Knew?
Wow. Who knew a little CFL piece would spark so many responses, and more importantly so many that were not necessarily in agreement. How great is that? It’s what makes Care2 cool in my opinion, because the people who are reading are thinkers and like to share info. Since so many people popped in with their info, I thought I’d highlight a couple of ideas from responses and then add in what I was planning on writing about this week anyway. Here goes.
• A number of folks wrote in that they felt that any amount of mercury is bad and I fully agree with them on this notion. That said, if you aren’t going to use CFLs you still need to rectify with yourself that your old Edison bulbs are using more energy which is requiring more coal power (in most of the U.S. anyway) and that there is a large amount of mercury coming out of those plants. I’d like to hear from people on specific thoughts on why putting more unchecked mercury into the environment is better than a smaller amount in your control that you can make sure is disposed of properly.
• I should have mentioned this in the last article, but a great resource on recycling just about anything, including CFLs, here in the U.S. is www.earth911.com. Sadly this is only for the U.S. but maybe folks from other countries can write in with similar resources.
• While it is in the comments from the last article, I also found this resource on CFLs to be intelligent, well written, and very honest about the pros and cons of these bulbs.
• From reading the comments (and I wish I could respond to all the ones I’d like to but time wouldn’t permit) it appears that some people do get migraines from these bulbs and for obvious reasons there’s no point in these households even trying them. I’ve also heard from several people that some older houses with poor wiring and some older dimmers are not compatible with CFLs and therefore, it wouldn’t make sense in these households either.
• Another comment that caught my attention mentioned the environmental degradation that results in China from making these bulbs. I can’t say as I know much about this and would be interested in learning more, but checked at the store and the Edisons I found were also made in China so I’m interested to learn the differences. If anyone has any info please post it up.
I think the greatest thing I learned from the response from last week’s piece is that there is still a lot of misinformation out there about CFLs and a lot of controversy, much of it valid, that surrounds them. Having said that, I feel it’s important to point out that this is a halfway mark. Edison bulbs were invented to create heat and thereby give off light (and ironically were not invented by Edison, but a Brit named Joseph Swan–Edison perfected it using a new type of filament and patented that process). One hundred years or so later, CFLs came out as bulbs that were intended to create light and also gave off some heat, sort of the opposite of the original.
The future will most likely not be CFL-lit and as a result, most of what we have been discussing will eventually be moot (ya know, like in the Rick Springfield song). LED light bulbs have a significant future ahead of them and are quite promising. The bulbs that exist now can be plugged in and run for 10 years and will cost about 80 cents a year to run. Sadly, the two most popular units available right now are extremely expensive and for the average person, will prove to be less than adequate for most uses. But this too shall change and when it does, all of this will be behind us.
So what’s a good greenie to do? Well, while there are no pat answers for everything, there is one that is sure to improve things for most people. Turn your lights off. One of the comments last week mentioned this and I was bummed (and sort of psyched at the same time) that someone beat me to the punch. Some friends of mine tried this a few years back. For two months, they religiously turned their bulbs off every time they were exiting a room and then compared their electric bill to the year before. They ended up shaving 20 percent off their electric bill. No purchases, no confusion, just good old common sense.
Final advice? Do your homework and decide where and if CFLs are right for you. Keep an eye on the LED front and know that they are on the horizon. Train yourself to keep those lights off when not in use. And more importantly, recognize that life is not all or nothing and that doing even a little is better than doing nothing at all.
Dave Chameides is a filmmaker and environmental educator. His website and newsletter are designed to inspire thought and dialogue on environmental solutions and revolve around the idea that no one can do everything, but everyone can do something. “Give people the facts, and they’ll choose to do the right thing.”
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add your comment »See how these lightbulbs are poisoning Chinese workers, see http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6211261.ece. Excerpt: "Large numbers of Chinese workers have been poisoned by mercury, which forms part of the compact fluorescent lightbulbs. A surge in foreign demand, set off by a European Union directive making these bulbs compulsory within three years, has also led to the reopening of mercury mines that have ruined the environment. "
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Great article. I am interested in this debate and what would be best. This entry expresses feelings very similar to mine. I agree the best thing to do is to just turn off the lights! :D
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Thanks for your balanced advice. It's good to have well-researched and fair information to let people decide if it's something they should act on. I often get confused reading articles in newspapers because they don't give the full story.
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I tried compact fluorescent light bulbs, and had to stop using them, in less then an hour. They gave me a migraine, and made me feel nauseous. And, they caused a great deal of interference and distortion in my hearing aid. It was so bad, that I couldn't understand speech at all. I really hope that we will be given a choice of which light bulbs we want to use, because I have no idea what I will do, if incandescent bulbs are banned. Many other people have also said they can't tolerate the compact fluorescent bulbs. What a dilemma.
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Timothy R. asked "are led xmas lights energy efficient compared to lamps?" My understanding is that they are. We went to see a huge holiday light display at the zoo in Tacoma and they used all LED lights because they save electricity. The LEDs bulbs seemed sharper and cooler than old fashioned Christmas lights.
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You ask about environmental degradation that results in China from making these bulbs, and I just read the following in the Old Dominion Sierran:
"According to Bama Athrey, executive director of International Labor Rights Forum, workers in a G.E. CFL plant in China... wear no protective clothing while working with the mercury and lead used to manufacture the bulbs. When bulbs break, they are thrown in the trash, exposing the land and people in the area to mercury and lead."
The article also says that GE decided it was not economical to convert their plants that made incandescent bulbs to making CFLs so they closed 6 plants in Ohio, eliminating 425 jobs, and outsourced the making of GE CFLs to factories in China.
Related article on the web:
http://www.chinastakes.com/story.aspx?id=301
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Great post, Jeffie Freedom! Please consider also that not all electricity is made from coal. The National Grid disclosure for Rhode Island, for instance, says that 11.2 per cent of the electricity supplied to that state comes from coal. That means the mercury emissions from residential and commercial lighting amount only to just over one tenth the 6,000 lbs you would get if all our electricity came only from coal. The comparison becomes therefore 600 lbs of mercury per year emitted for incandescent lighting versus the 40,000 lbs of mercury waiting to be released from CFL lamps after their average lifespan of just a few years. This highlights even more the absurdity of the argument that CFLs would reduce the overall amount of mercury emitted. Moreover, the mercury spilled at home into floor crevices or rugs stays there in relatively concentrated form and will harm the occupants much more directly than coal plant emissions that get diluted. But as usual, rational evaluation does not have the same ad budget as a big industry, so the stampede towards CFLs will continue.
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I’m a big believer that if you want to make a cogent argument you should probably talk numbers, at least a little. Dave, you made a really open ended statement regarding mercury out of coal plants. Can we try and flesh that idea out a little? According to an EPA fact sheet these plants release 43 tons of mercury a year (A). Now look at this, a Wiki article which sites the U.S. Dept. of Energy as its source, indicates that lighting is a significant contributor to household and commercial energy usage. The household and commercial sectors use 21% and 17% of the total U.S. energy consumption, respectively, and lighting makes up 12% and 25% of the their total energy expenditure, also respectively (B). Let’s use this information to figure out how much mercury is escaping into the environment as a result of incandescent lighting, via coal-based energy usage:
Household: 43 tons x .21 x .12 = 1.1 tons
Commercial: 43 tons x .17 x .25 = 1.8 tons
About 3 tons or 6000 lbs. of mercury
Avg. 45 bulbs per home (C) x 100,000,000 American homes (D) x 4 mg mercury per CFL, convert to lbs = 40,000 lbs of mercury
Mercury release by
Coal-based energy usage by incandescent bulbs: 6,000 lbs
Improper disposal of CFLs: 40,000 lbs
A) http://www.epa.gov/ttn/oarpg/t3/fact_sheets/fs_util.pdf
B) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_use_in_the_United_States#cite_note-4
C) http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_journal/home_improvement/4215199.html
D) http://www.census.gov/hhes/ww
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The mercury will NOT be under OUR control as Dave suggests. Collections are handled by council workers in the UK, who are not known for their sensitive disposal, and once in the landfill, WILL eventually leak into our precious water-table. How to control this?
We don't have an 'earth911.com' and if we did, it would probably mean travel, maybe 30-40miles, so what's the point? We take batteries to the local recycle centre where I am informed that they don't recycle CFL's; they end up as landfill.
It seems a simple idea would be to return dead bulbs to stores, making a service available for recycling, but there is no comprehensive plan for disposal and athough tons of mercury may be escaping into the atmosphere from conventional coal-fired power stations, it seems that this stands a much better chance for dispersal than it being dumped in one location, waiting to leak. Chemical hazards are dealt with fairly stringently, (unless they are dumped illegally), why not CFL's?
And the Chinese? They seem to have loads of problems, so we don't buy ANYTHING Chinese. Simple!
I grew up with parents who taught and told us to turn lights off after leaving a room. Is this a problem? Closing doors so heat does not escape, and switching off lights seem to come under the category of education, like sitting up straight in a chair when eating. Should this not be the stuff that kids learn while they are growing up?
It's never too late to learn from our elders like.. 'waste not, want not'...
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are led xmas lights energy efficient compared to lamps?
I bought one this year.
Most homes have a socket for a lamp, so cfls can be incorporated in most homes.
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