California Assembly Committee Calls for Phase-Out of Incandescent Lights
California is joining the global warming bandwagon by phasing out the incandescent lights in favor of the energy efficient ones. The problem I have with this situation of mandated conversion of bulbs ( I have already converted,) is the fact that if the fluorescent bulbs break in your house, you literally have to call in a hazmat team to clean it up due to mercury contamination. 
If it breaks up in your house, you are advised not to vacuum or sweep because you are then just spreading the mercury contamination around the house.
We already get enough mercury drift from China all along the west coast including California, Oregon, and Washington. Worrying about mercury in our seafood is another concern. Too much exposure to toxics can lead to serious health problems.
I am all for fluorescent bulbs, but I feel governments should put systems in place to deal with these issues before they enact laws that force people to use them. People can't just throw away a fluorescent bulb in the garbage, they must go to a special recycling center. Very few people will actually do this, and most likely mercury contamination and pollution will be with us for quite some time in the future. Just my two cents.
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3 COMMENTS, ADD YOURS HERE:
While it is true that there is Mercury in CFLs, we need to encourage people to hang on to the bulbs until a disposal/recycling program is developed. For larger numbers of bulbs, sites like earth911.org offer info on how and where to recycle bulbs and electronics.
While I completely agree with you, and I myself am completly aware of where I can recycle my bulbs, the problem comes with the generally lazy public. Encouragment is not enough to entice people into recycling in general. The fact is a significant amount of mercury will still continue to contaminate the earth.
I didn't realise the potential for mercury contamination from these bulbs. I guess there's something wrong with everything. Perhaps there's a third alternative?
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