Friday, March 28, 2008

Dangers Of Fluorescent Bulbs

Companies and the EPA are aggressively promoting the sale of compact fluorescent light bulbs as a way to save energy and fight global warming, but these bulbs contain small amounts of mercury, a neurotoxin, and the companies and federal government haven't come up with effective ways to get Americans to recycle them.

The mercury is inside the bulb and safe as long as it doesn't break, but they'll break before they get to the landfill and workers may be exposed to very high levels of mercury when that happens. There's also dangers within the home if they break and fall into carpet where children, pregnant women and pets can be exposed to the dangers.

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency program concedes that not enough has been done to urge people to recycle CFL bulbs and make it easier for them to do so.

Read the entire article.
Get info on recycling these bulbs from the EPA site.

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