CFL Light Bulbs Are Not All They Are Cracked Up To Be

In todays world of environmentally friendly goods one of the first you will hit is CFL bulbs. Every professional is telling you that if you want a earth friendly home you need to swap all of your bulbs to CFLs.

There is no denying that CFL bulbs use a reduced amount of electricity, which in turn means you save money on your power bills and benefit the environment.

But, what are they not telling you? CFL bulbs use mercury, if it breaks you are in a contaminated area, and need to leave. It is really hazardous, so normalcleaning is not possible. If you sweep it up, you have distributed the mercury to your entire house. You are now surrounded by mercury.

On the packages, they suggest you to dispose of the bulbs in a correct manner. This means not in your regular garbage. But, the reality is people are throwing them out, and our landfills are being contaminated on a daily basis. To saydispose of in a proper manner does not mean it will happen. The reality is most buyers want power savings, not environmental ones.

The dark secret of CFL bulbs, is dirty electricity (which is electromagnetic pollution), and ultraviolet radiation.

According to Health Canada there is UV radiation there, but there are no studies to conclude how harmful CFL bulbs are. In the United Kingdom, they have started to do research, and have determined that 1 in 5 bulbs emit unusual amounts of UV radiation. There are acknowledged cases of rash, headaches, dizziness, joint pain, and blistering caused by the CFL bulbs, but at present there are no rules governing the production of the bulbs.

There is very little information of the effects of electromagnetic pollution. This is the contamination that is also associated with cell phones. There are people who claim headaches, disorientation, and rashes. But again very few scientists are researching the long term effects of CFL bulbs.

In fact, if you do a search of CFL bulbs, you see very little on the health warnings. Everyone is promoting them as the right ‘green’ choice for your home. The big manufacturing companies have done there job, we do not get the truth about the health issues of the bulbs.

So, what do you do?

There are choices for earth friendly lights. You can use CLED lights, but unfortanetly they are very expensive at this point. So they are better for you and the environment, but the average person can’t afford them.

The next option is to make sure that your CFL bulb has a prasmatic diffuser (this is a fancy way of saying the ones with the covers). There is not a guarantee that they are better for the environment, they still contain mercury, but researchers in the UK have concluded that the diffuser helps lessen the ‘dirty’ electricity by a sizeable amount. One report I read stated by as much as 70%, which places it equal to a radio.

Compact Flourescent Lights are not the solution, but until CLED lights become more affordable, we are limited in our choices. So, make certain your CFLs have the diffuser, and try not to sit too close to them for long periods of time ( more than an hour) and hope the governments get off their butts and force the manufacturers to find a better alternative that is good for us and the environment.

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