Louisville Mojo: LG&E's Controversial Lightbulbs

CFL lightbulbs, filled with toxic mercury, have been very controversial since their inception. Although they provide a slight reduction in one's energy consumption, the unfortunate downside to them is that they're extremely poisonous, and can cause serious environment problems when broken or disposed of improperly.

Needless to say, I'm not a fan of proliferating dangerous mercury into the environment and into the hands of people who don't even know or care what's in the bulbs. Therefore, I was horrified today to receive a notice in the mail from LG&E that they're giving away free CFL lightbulbs to any of their customers who request them.

"Changing out just four of your most used lightbulbs to energy-efficient CFL bulbs can save you more than $20 a year," it cheerfully explains on the brochure.

Hmmmm.

Times are tough and reducing one's utility bill is a good thing, I'll grant them that. And yes, reducing one's carbon footprint is all well and good. But only $20 a year? As we used to say on the playground: "oh, big whoop."

The currently fashionable craze to attempt to reduce one's carbon footprint is admirable, if naive. In the face of the massive polluting and resource-sucking being done around the clock by the world's factories, piddling around with such minutiae as lightbulb usage amounts to the equivalent of trying to purify ocean water one cup at a time, then throwing it back in.

It's my fondest hope that people are increasingly sophisticated enough to know that switching to a mini-fluorescent lightbulb filled with toxic materials is not going to save the Earth, nor even help it one iota. The damage to the environment already inflicted by CFL bulbs outweighs the slim advantage it has in conservative BTU consumption.

According to the federal government's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, if mercury is inhaled as a vapor, about 80% is absorbed into the bloodstream and about 95% of methyl mercury is absorbed into the gastrointestinal tract. It is a powerful neurotoxin and can have a particularly devastating effect on children, pets and pregnant or nursing women if one is accidentally dropped and broken in the home.

And who among us has never accidentally broken a lightbulb, even if it's uncaringly done when we toss one in the trash can?

What the LG&E brochure also doesn't mention is that it's even more harmful to the planet to do just that - CFL bulbs should not be thrown out in your normal trash. According to epa.gov:

Under federal regulations, commercial and industrial entities are required to manage mercury-containing light bulbs as a hazardous waste after they burn out. However, households are exempt from these regulations. Some states (i.e., California and Massachusetts) and counties may have more stringent requirements than the federal regulations. In these states, you must either take the fluorescent light bulb to a household hazardous waste collection facility or to a recycling facility. You should be aware of the requirements in your state.

Hazardous waste, they said. Hazardous waste. Getting the picture yet? Wait, it gets worse. From the EPA again:

If your state or local environmental regulatory agency offers no other disposal options except your household garbage, place the fluorescent light bulb in a plastic bag and seal it before putting it in the trash. If your waste agency incinerates its garbage, you should search a wider geographic area for proper disposal options. Never send a fluorescent light bulb or any other mercury-containing product to an incinerator.

This all sounds like a herculean amount of effort and research that someone has to do before they know what to do with one of LG&E's lightbulbs after it burns out. And I fear that most LG&E customers won't give it a moment of thought, they'll just toss the damn thing. Can't say as I blame them. Who has time to micromanage every aspect of their household existence down to each lightbulb?

And since when is the burden of reducing one's carbon footprint supposed to be on the consumer, anyway? Why should I spend a significant chunk of my valuable time assessing my carbon footprint impact when megacorporations and polluters are allowed to run rampant and unchecked? Somewhere along the way, things have gotten backwards when places like Rubbertown are still allowed to exist, yet I'm expected to stay hyper-vigilant not to idle my car for too long, and to be sure to use the right "eco-friendly" products... like mercury-filled lightbulbs.

I doubt there's any real concern about the environment behind the lightbulb giveaway - I suspect it was just some bright idea of some PR wonk to make the company look hip and "green." And the board of directors (with all the farsighted wisdom of, say, Dilbert's pointy-haired boss) must have thought it was a brilliant campaign of good will. What's next, free nerve gas grenades? No, wait - that's exactly what these lightbulbs are.

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Bro. Grimm sat nov 21 2009 at 11:36 pm ·


	I have been telling people for a while about these bulbs and the haz-mat issue. Everyone has told me they are going STRAIGHT into the trash like the old bulbs when they burn out. As for the "carbon footprint" being reduced, how much of a footprint is made to get these to the store. Look at the boxes in the store. Last I checked, ALL the bulbs come from China. I'm sure the boxes are printed with lead based paint also.

Strawberry Burns sun nov 22 2009 at 8:43 am ·


	Wow! I had NO CLUE these bulbs were hazardous! NONE! I've been throwing them in the trash too! Guess I won't be buying them anymore!

Rob Beanz #162341 sun nov 22 2009 at 11:25 am ·


	Look Out! The grim reaper is all around us in every shape form and fashion, theres no excaping it..... ....and its even worse when its Man Made! Must be another government conspiracy. Happy JFK Day :)~

CoffeeGuy sun nov 22 2009 at 1:32 pm ·


	Are you this incensed about the trillions of 4 foot fluorescent tubes (with mercury) that have been commonly used for decades in every office and institution on the planet?

J.S. Holland sun nov 22 2009 at 2:01 pm ·


	Yes, CoffeeGuy, I am. My concern over a new form of spreading a toxin isn't diminished by knowing that there have been previous, prevalent, and equally toxic methods. Fluorescent lights, previously found mainly in office buildings, are now being put in the homes and hands of millions of citizens who were never instructed how to properly deal with them. It's one thing for paid office-building maintenance men to have to handle these things, but quite another thing for the average irresponsible everyman.

Strawberry Burns sun nov 22 2009 at 5:36 pm ·


	I've seen fluorescent tubes used in movie stunts, kids using them to break on one another, etc. I never thought a thing about it until now.

cadejo7 sun nov 22 2009 at 6:07 pm ·


	$20 of savings in energy use for every house hold in any system is also a great reduction in the carbon footprint. We are all personally responsible for trying to heal the damage that has been done thus far to the earth. I live in a small village in Alaska where there are three giant diesel motor generators that supply the electricity for the town of 5oo souls. Our price for electricity is .50 KWH, so any way of reducing our electical use helps our pocket books greatly as well as not having made the powerplant burn more fuel. LED's are better and I'm waiting for them to become cheaper as the CFL bulbs did.

Sir Jude sun nov 22 2009 at 10:44 pm ·


	This is very eye-opening. Not only regarding light bulbs, but for environmental issues as a whole.

GtownGuy sun nov 22 2009 at 11:20 pm ·


	I received my 4 made-in-China CFL bulbs in the mail yesterday. The postman left the box on the stone coping of my porch, with a 4 1/2 to 5 foot drop to the concrete sidewalk below. Whew! -glad the box didn't fall off the edge. Gosh, no matter how "packaged" for disposal with household trash, these boogers are gonna be CRUSHED by the compactor in the garbage trucks every few yards, spewing their toxins to the workers & the neighborhood. I turned the flyer over & over when I received the "free" offer in the mail, trying to find the "catch," like signing up for type of conservation program. I couldn't find any. I think I will try using these bulbs - very carefully, since I can't just toss them out. After all, I live in an asbestos-sided house.

GtownGuy sun nov 22 2009 at 11:29 pm ·


	Re: JFK Day. For you youngsters, today (11/22) is the 46th anniv. of Pres. JFK's assassination. Nothing "happy" about it.

Jorge Pancho mon nov 23 2009 at 12:44 am ·


	Great piece. Thoughtful discussion. Bring on the LED's!

CoffeeGuy mon nov 23 2009 at 1:33 am ·


	We played with a ball of liquid mercury in science class when I was in Jr. High school. It didn't affec, affec, affect me at all. the odds of a broken bulb affecting the health of a human is slim to none. Much less worrisome than letting your kid skateboard without a helmet. The effect on the environment is negligible in relation to the amount of mercury and other heavy metals dumped into the environment by industry. It's 'an' issue, but it's not something I will lose sleep over. Having a trigger happy man in the Whitehouse for the previous eight years took way more toll on my nerves than fluroescent light bulbs.

CoffeeGuy mon nov 23 2009 at 1:40 am ·


	As an aside, I absolutely HATE the quality of light from fluorescent and LED bulbs. There is research on the effect on eyestrain from the almost imperceptible, but present flickering (not present in incandescent bulbs) and the fake color perceived after the brain analyzes the spectrum and tries to make it look 'white'.

CoffeeGuy mon nov 23 2009 at 1:49 am ·


	In reference to this comment made by J.S. Holland-"Fluorescent lights, previously found mainly in office buildings, are now being put in the homes and hands of millions of citizens who were never instructed how to properly deal with them. It's one thing for paid office-building maintenance men to have to handle these things, but quite another thing for the average irresponsible everyman." Do you have any idea how paid office maintenence men dispose of fluorescent tubes? They smash them in the dumpster out back. If you have any misconception that maintenence men are trained in fluorescent tube disposal, it might be worth your while to do a little survey of local office maintenence men.

J.S. Holland mon nov 23 2009 at 9:44 am ·


	Anyone who thinks inhaling mercury dust (which is what the issue is about) is no big deal is welcome to go on thinking so. For the rest of us, including the EPA, it's a no-brainer.

James Hickman #313503 mon nov 23 2009 at 9:52 am ·


	CFLs use significantly less energy than traditional light bulbs (75% less). If every home in America replaced just one incandescent light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified CFL, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes and prevent greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to that of 800,000 cars. And even though CFLs contain a small amount of mercury that could ultimately end up in the environment, that amount is significantly less than the amount of mercury avoided as a result of the energy savings

Rob Beanz #162341 mon nov 23 2009 at 10:37 am ·


	No matter how one looks at it, and cry all the tears they may, the PEOPLE that can NOT cook Mac & Cheese are at fault! And trust, there is more than Mercury and teflon to worry about in those shallow little worlds! Read the ingredients of precious hand lotions and shampoos and oh my, what about that tap water! Dont put a comment application on these blogs if one cant take the truth or better yet the facts!

chuck mon nov 23 2009 at 11:32 am ·


	The amount of mercury in these bulbs is nothing compared to what is spewed into our air by all of our coal plants. As someone said, this is a concern, but it's hardly a show stopper. The energy and cost savings are substantial. Seems like the simple thing to do is to locate a recycling center for these types of bulbs and hold on for five or seven years until LED's become inexpensive enough to use everywhere. Incandescent bulbs are being phased out starting in 2012, and good riddance to them. They're highly energy inefficient and they don't last but for a few months, compared to years for a CFL. I've replaced 90% of the bulbs in our house with CFL's. There is an adjustment that has to be made with them (i.e the warm up time) but it's simple enough. I haven't been able to find reasonably priced dimmable CFLs or I'd have them all replaced. Using colored lamp shades helps quite a bit with the color and spectrum issues too. Best, - Chuck

chuck mon nov 23 2009 at 1:36 pm ·


	How do you know the cat died due to a broken bulb? We had a cat die of heart and kidney failure and it wasn't exposed to a broken CFL. It seems like a bit of a stretch to say that was the cause without some science backing it up.

J.S. Holland mon nov 23 2009 at 2:37 pm ·


	Bulbs, schmulbs. Me, I prefer candles. http://revelationawaitsanappointedtime.blogspot.com/2009/09/candlepower.html

GtownGuy mon nov 23 2009 at 3:17 pm ·


	I remember buying a clutzy CFL bulb (it promised substantial energy-use savings) in the late '80s or very, very early '90s. Had to use a kind of adaptor base in the regular lamp socket. This "conversion" was expensive. And - gosh durn - that sucker burned out in way less than a year. --And was only used briefly, 5 days a week at most, in a small lamp on a bedroom dresser. But I seldom replace incandescent bulbs, even though I have these tremendous old stockpiles from past sale events. Not even annually, except for my 2-bulb overhead kitchen fixture which seems to need at least a yearly feeding. 'Course LG&E rate hikes changed my habits so that I actually use less lighting than I did, say, 20 years ago.

*D mon nov 23 2009 at 5:36 pm ·


	we are all doomed! I think we should protest Jack Daniels more harmful for my liver than a light bulb.

CoffeeGuy tue nov 24 2009 at 1:28 am ·


	According to energystar.gov- "Do CFLs contain mercury? CFLs contain a very small amount of mercury sealed within the glass tubing – an average of 4 milligrams. By comparison, older thermometers contain about 500 milligrams of mercury – an amount equal to the mercury in 125 CFLs."

CoffeeGuy tue nov 24 2009 at 1:29 am ·


	according to energystar.gov-- "EPA estimates the U.S. is responsible for the release of 104 metric tons of mercury emissions each year. Most of these emissions come from coal-fired electrical power. Mercury released into the air is the main way that mercury gets into water and bio-accumulates in fish."

CoffeeGuy tue nov 24 2009 at 1:30 am ·


	According to energystar.gov-- "How do CFLs result in less mercury in the environment compared to traditional light bulbs? Electricity use is the main source of mercury emissions in the U.S. CFLs use less electricity than incandescent lights, meaning CFLs reduce the amount of mercury into the environment."

CoffeeGuy tue nov 24 2009 at 1:58 am ·


	Anyone get flu shots this year? Did you make sure your children got immunized? There's about 25mcg of mercury in every shot. Directly into your body. Some of the vaccines are mercury free.

chuck tue nov 24 2009 at 9:44 am ·


	Coffeeguy, Thank you for clearing this up! Best, - C

J.S. Holland tue nov 24 2009 at 9:59 am ·


	Far from "clearing it up", pointing out that there's lots of mercury in other places is irrelevant to the point. These are non-sequiturs.

chuck tue nov 24 2009 at 11:24 am ·


	I thought CoffeGuy's quote from energystar.gov cleared up this issue: "How do CFLs result in less mercury in the environment compared to traditional light bulbs? Electricity use is the main source of mercury emissions in the U.S. CFLs use less electricity than incandescent lights, meaning CFLs reduce the amount of mercury into the environment." CFL's use leads to less mercury in our air, and therefore, less mercury inside of you. Now granted, that's no reason to NOT dispose of them properly, but it's certainly a good argument to use them. Best, - C

CoffeeGuy tue nov 24 2009 at 8:27 pm ·


	Personally, I think it is wise to stay away from heavy metals, but while we're worried about heavy metals, there are a number of much more serious threats to humanity. Of course we need to deal with them individually, but the cure is going to be worse than the illness. Anyone ever consider eliminating plastics from the environment and from usage in literally everything? Although it is kept hush hush, the chemicals leeched from plastics are probably the most toxic thing most of us will ever encounter. That includes so called 'food safe' plastics. Anyone concerned with cooking your brain with a cell phone? Maybe it doesn't cause cancer. Maybe it just makes us more irritable or less functional. There's no way you can microwave your brain day in and day out without detrimental effects. Have a nice day.

CoffeeGuy wed nov 25 2009 at 12:31 am ·


	I am using eight CFL bulbs in my home. Six are in outside light fixtures because they don't crack when water drips on them and they don't burn out as fast as incandescent bulbs. Two are in security lamps on timers that come on and stay on for long periods of time, and again, the bulbs don't burn out hardly ever. I hate the light they produce, and I am not happy that they contain mercury. For me, it's a balance of what works and what doesn't. I don't think it's anything to get too worked up about. I'll save that for something else.

Sherry Deatrick wed nov 25 2009 at 1:45 pm ·


	Compact fluorescent light bulbs can release dangerous amounts of mercury into the air when they break and must be disposed of very carefully, according to a report by the state of Maine. Read more at http://www.naturalnews.com/024014.html

Sherry Deatrick wed nov 25 2009 at 5:59 pm ·


	The military also brought Agent Orange and Depleted Uranium to its troops.

Kool Jerk fri nov 27 2009 at 6:20 pm ·


	LED bulbs need to become more common with a low price. Right now most LED bulbs are being sold on eBay. LED bulbs are already plentiful, just not here.

GrammarPolice wed dec 02 2009 at 8:28 pm ·


	I love killing the environment.

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