What do you think are the costs of having energy-efficient light bulbs?

Question

Isn't it tragic & contradictory that an industry that promotes itself as being a friend of the Earth, depends on a highly toxic mercury that poisons workers? 

When British consumers are compelled to buy energy-efficient light bulbs from 2012, they will save up to 5 million tons of carbon dioxide a year from being pumped into the atmosphere. In China, however, a heavy environmental price is being paid for the production of "green" light bulbs in cost-cutting factories. 

Large numbers of workers have been poisoned by mercury, which forms part of the fluorescent light bulbs. 

A surge in foreign demand, set off by an EU directive making these bulbs compulsory within three years, has also led to the reopening of mercury mines that have ruined the environment of a remote and beautiful part of China. 

Doctors, regulators, lawyers and courts in China are increasingly alert to the potential impacts on public health of an industry that promotes itself as a friend of the earth but depends on highly toxic mercury for its core product. Making the bulbs requires workers to handle mercury in either solid or liquid form because a small amount of the metal is put into each bulb to start the chemical reaction that creates light. 

Mercury is recognised as a health hazard worldwide because its accumulation in the body can damage the nervous system, lungs and kidneys, posing a major threat to babies in the womb and young children. 

In southern China, compact fluorescent light bulbs destined for western consumers are being made in factories that range from hi-tech multinational operations to sweatshops. Tests on hundreds of employees have found dangerously high levels of mercury in their bodies, especially in the cities of Foshan and Guangzhou. 
A court in a suburb of Beijing has just broken new ground in industrial injuries law by agreeing to hear a case unrelated to light bulbs but filed by a plaintiff named Gao, who is seeking £375,000 in compensation for acute mercury poisoning that he claims destroyed his digestive system. The potential for litigation may be greatest in the ruined mountain landscape of Guizhou province in the southwest, where mercury has been mined for centuries. The land is scarred and many of the people have left.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

The same goes for the idea of electric cars.The damage to the environment in making the batteries,negates the 'Green' concept of the cars themselves!

mommanuke · Answer

Unfortunately, this is just one of a long list of evidences of the lack of concern China has for its citizens, and indeed, for the rest of the world.   The only thing important to them is the almighty Yuan.  I don't remember the exact number, but thousands of them die in coal mining accidents every year.  And hundreds of people got infected with AIDS because the company collected their blood, extracted the money making factor from it, and then reinfused it.  Unfortunately, they didn't separate the individual collections but instead kept it all together in one pool.  So one person who had AIDS thus infected every donor.  There are areas where there is no water to drink that has not been severely polluted by industrial runoff of one kind or another.  

The problem is not so much with the bulbs themselves, although they do contain a small amount of mercury and must be disposed of properly, but with the insistence on buying them from someone who doesn't care how their manufacture affects its own people.

👑 Hypocrite󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣 · Answer

I don't think the fluorescent ones will have much future. I think that the future of energy efficient bulbs is in LED and possibly OLED. LED still uses some harmful material in it's manufacture, but is nothing like as bad as mercury.

Mercury is found in many electrical components. I think the major issue here is, how the Chinese go about their industrial practises. Saving energy is an honourable goal. It's worth highlighting these risks, but we should still strive for better efficiency and encourage them to have better health practises.

? · Answer

whether it was a good deal or not depends on the size. i got the small ones cheap but they don't put off enough light to keep from stubbing my toe in the hallway (my cell puts off more light) so i got the bigger ones which were way more. i like them fine, and my light bill did go down 14 bucks from last month. since i have a husband and son who insist on keeping every light on all the time it helps. now it probably wont help that much for the average person in 1 month, but i have noticed a big difference. can't wait til summer when they are outside all day and the light bill goes way down.

RichB · Answer

I'm going into pound shops at the moment and stocking up with 100W bulbs, while they're still available at 6 bulbs for £1 or 8 bulbs for £1.

I'll do the same with 40W and 60W once they start to disappear.

Those bulbs should last me until they come up with something better than those dreadful, diabolical, awful (and now it seems poisonous) CFL things.

Or at least until the bulb police come round with their bulb-sniffing dogs to confiscate my illegal bulbs.

_ · Answer

These contain toxins, I prefer traditional incandescent bulbs, safer and less costly to buy. Just how many kWh do people really imagine a lightbulb uses???

GEORGE B · Answer

Have thrown them all out & purchased sufficient "normal" bulbs for the foreseeable future
To hell with ill thought govt directives

Anonymous · Answer

They are just another in a long line of stupid decisions take by our beloved rulers.

It will all bounce back on them at the next election.

Anonymous · Answer

Just let me say this ......... remember Bhopal ....... life is cheap, sad but true.

http://www1.american.edu/ted/bhopal.htm

That is why the developed nations have all of their 'iffy' manufacturing carried out in third world or developing counties.

Kev · Answer

I thought there would be a downside to it, but not as bad as that.
I've never bought an energy saving bulb before.

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What do you think are the costs of having energy-efficient light bulbs?

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