Op/Ed Submission, Bradley Steele

In response to concern relating to mercury in compact fluorescent lamps, EFI President Brad Steele submitted the op/ed piece below for consideration to The Boston Globe.

"Compact fluorescent light bulbs, or cfls, have been an icon of the energy efficiency movement and their growing popularity has been remarkable. In 2007, more than 400 million cfls were sold nationwide -- a four-fold increase from just three years ago. The associated reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from using that many cfls (rather than the same number of incandescent bulbs), is more than 100 million tons. Installing cfls is the easiest and most immediate action consumers can take to reduce their ‘carbon footprints.’
Unfortunately, two reports recently issued by the state of Maine and the Vermont-based Mercury Policy Project addressing the risks posed by mercury in cfls, are being misconstrued. Some consumers are reaching conclusions other than those stated by the studies’ authors.

Both studies acknowledge the potential risks of mercury exposure in cfls and stress proper disposal and the importance of recycling. These are accurate and important messages. Despite these concerns, both studies conclude that the energy saving and environmental benefits of cfls outweigh any risks associated with using them. Some consumers are choosing to focus on a complicated and hazardous clean up process, should a cfl break, and are refusing to use them. But before we throw the baby out with the bath water, we should understand the ongoing improvements being made to cfls and the expanding options for disposing of and recycling these bulbs.

Alternatives for cfl disposal are increasing every day. In several New England states, electric utilities and other providers of energy efficiency programs are working with local retailers on recycling programs that enable consumers to bring cfls to a store. From there, the cfls are sent to a recycling plant by the participating retailer. (The nation’s largest recycler of cfls has a plant in Stoughton, Mass.) In addition to these retailer programs, many communities have programs allowing cfls to be collected for recycling as household hazardous waste, along with batteries, thermostats, thermometers and other products containing mercury.

In a perfect world, cfls would not contain any mercury at all. In reality, the chemical is an essential element required to make all fluorescent bulbs work. In the past year, several manufacturers have introduced lines of cfls that use between one and 2.4 milligrams of mercury. This represents a reduction of two to five times the original NEMA standard of five milligrams that virtually all cfls used as recently as 2007. By comparison, the batteries in people’s watches and fillings in their teeth contain much higher mercury concentrations than cfls.

For consumers concerned about risks associated from exposure to mercury should they break a cfl bulb in their home, there are many models of cfls sold that are encapsulated (e.g., globe or reflector styles) where an outer shell of glass covers the inner, mercury containing lamp. If one of these products is broken, the likelihood of the inner lamp also breaking is minimal, and there would be no mercury leakage.

To prevent mercury emissions in your home, exercising care and common sense when handling a cfl is important, as it is with the proper use of many household products: When installing a spiral bulb, hold the product by the plastic base, and never by the glass tube. Do not put a cfl in a lamp where a child or a pet can knock it over. If a cfl breaks, keep young children and pets away from the glass as you clean it up. Use wet cloths and/or sticky tape (rather than a vacuum) and ventilate the area well for at least 15 minutes.
Cleaning up a broken incandescent bulb may be simpler, but the consequences to our environment are not. Using inefficient incandescent bulbs causes more mercury to be released into the atmosphere because more energy from power plants is required to light them According to the Environmental Protection Agency, if every household switched just one bulb in their house to a cfl, the electricity saved could light three million homes and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of 800,000 cars. Consequently, there would be a significant reduction in asthma, smog, acid rain, global climate change and our dependency on foreign oil.

Cfls are a readily available, easy-to-use technology that produces clearly demonstrable energy savings. They have truly revolutionized how people reduce their energy consumption and enabled every consumer to participate. If we are afraid to use cfls now because of mercury, we are being myopic. We should be more frightened of what will happen if we do not."