GlobalWarmingHotSpot.com

Sure, I’m a fan of compact fluorescent bulbs, but as a consumer we need to spread the word that compact fluorescent bulbs contain mercury. A very toxic, very poisonous substance - a nerve damaging toxin that can also damage your kidneys and liver.

Energy Star has put some figures on the use of this alternative choice for light bulbs.
If we all bought just one Energy Star qualified compact fluorescent bulb…

(not sure of what tests they perform - I’m a little biased here because their tests differ every year for the same product - overall though, other companies are in similar agreement) we could light 3 million homes a year, it’d be worth over $600 million in yearly energy costs, and rid greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than a whopping 800,000 cars. Pretty darn convincing isn’t it?

With that mentioned, compact fluorescent bulbs remind me of paint cans. They’re just so easy to throw into the garbage thinking that no one is going to notice even though they require special handling when disposing.

Compact fluorescent bulbs must be disposed of in the same pile as any hazardous material. Think that if we all just put one bulb each year into the garbage - the earths ecosystems will start to go into shock in it’s own “little” way. Each compact fluorescent bulb contains about five milligrams of mercury. Thats a lot of mercury.

If in Canada, at this rate, 15 million compact fluorescent bulbs are sold each year. They will eventually burn out and require somewhere to go other than your house garbage. There is one company that stands out above all the others right now and that’s IKEA who has a drop-off box specifically for them.

So, who’s next?

Peace.