We have all heard about the upcoming incandescent light bulb ban. It is part of the legislation passed by congress and signed by then President Bush called the “Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007”. This legislation does not directly ban incandescent light bulbs but it does require all light bulbs that produce 310 to 2600 lumens of light to be 30% more efficient by 2012 to 2014. This effectively puts an end to the old incandescent light bulb, since no one knows how to make them that efficient, and forces us all to switch to the compact fluorescent light bulbs that have flooded the market in the past decade. Our government says that this ban will reduce our dependence on foreign oil and make us more “secure” while reducing greenhouse gases – hence “Independence and Security” act. We have plenty of company with this ban. Many nations around the world have already instituted similar policies or are in the process of doing so: Cuba (one of the first), Australia, the European Union, Malaysia, India, Ireland, Switzerland, etc, etc. So it can’t be a bad thing, right? I mean – come on – if Cuba thinks it’s a good thing then it has to be!
Well, let’s take a look at the other side other side of this issue. Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs) are the only current replacement that we have. These light bulbs contain as much as 5mg of mercury in each bulb; incandescent bulbs contain no mercury. Mercury is a known toxic element (very dangerous in high concentrations to anyone and dangerous to developing children in lower concentrations) that once introduced into the environment is only slowly removed through natural processes. Fish are the largest source of high levels of mercury since they accumulate the mercury in their flesh. The fish become contaminated by the mercury in the water, in the algae they eat, and in the smaller fish and waterborne insects that the larger fish eat. The human body can then be exposed to toxic levels by consuming contaminated fish or other seafood. This mercury in the water can come from natural sources (though generally very tiny amounts unless you live close to an active volcano), industrial operations and run off from landfills. It has been…..
Wait!
Run off from landfills? Where are we going to put all those burned out CFLs?
Landfills!
Well, it is not quite as bad as it sounds. The amount of mercury released into the environment by CFLs, whether broken at home or at the landfill, is still far less than the amount of mercury released by coal fired power plants – which are the largest producers of environmental mercury. If you break one in your home you just have to open the doors and windows to air out the house and store the broken pieces in a sealed glass jar. And since glass jars are a geographically produced item (too heavy to ship long distances economically) then the ban will produce more jobs for glass jar makers; chalk up another job creation program created by the government. And don’t worry about the mercury released into your home by breaking one either; it can release “chronic” levels of mercury into the air of you home for only short periods of time. Since no studies have ever been done on the effects of short but chronic level exposure to mercury then it is probably safe.
So, the mercury issue is not as bad as some make it sound. The amount of electricity that we use to run our light bulbs will be greatly reduced, which in turn will require less burning of coal in our coal fired power plants (%50 of all power plants in the U.S.) which will actually reduce our environmental mercury contamination (unless you live close to a landfill – you don’t do you? ). And since we have no factories producing CFLs in the United States we won’t even have to worry about mercury contamination from their manufacturing process (or the jobs they produce) or the extra coal being burned to supply them electricity.
The bad news for China is that they are the world’s leading supplier of CFLs. They have had a dramatic increase in toxic exposures to mercury, mainly occurring in the workers at those factories that produce CFLs (China has very poor environmental and workplace safety regulation). Also, they have had to ramp up electricity production to supply all the new factories that produce CFLs since all these incandescent bans have been put in place. China’s electricity production is dominated by fossil fuel burning power plants and those are mainly coal – the mercury producer. But that’s okay; at least we won’t be the ones dying from mercury contamination. And with all the money they’ll be making by selling us for those CFLs they will be able to compensate all those people that end up with chronic, mercury related diseases.
Hey, you know what? We could probably supply China with the mercury they need to make the CFLs! That would replace the jobs that were lost – when GE closed the last U.S. incandescent light bulb plant – with new jobs for miners. Oh, wait, most U.S. mercury mines were mined out years ago. There is very little production of mercury in the U.S. anymore. Besides, China produces most of the world’s supply of mercury anyway.
Never mind….
Libertarian or Bust 