Commentary

The main source of mercury that we are exposed to comes from burning coal in our power plants to create electricity.  So much mercury eventually makes its way to the oceans that the EPA advises us not to eat too much fish.  Particularly pregnant women.

(Power plants, by the way, are emitting less mercury per ton of coal than they used to because of the Clean Air Act regulations.  The problem is that we’re also burning more coal than we ever have before.)

CFLs, because they create light using so little power, are a great way of reducing our electricity use and therefore reduce the amount of coal we burn.  The less coal we burn, the less CO2 and mercury we release into the air. 

Yet, CFL’s do contain mercury.  It seems counter intuitive to buy light bulbs that contain mercury and that might eventually be thrown into a landfill as a way of reducing CO2 and mercury.  Aren’t we just just moving the environmental pain around?

The answer is no.  Let’s look at this from the standpoint of the mercury.  Assuming you use a CFL bulb which lasts for 5 years and is then thrown into the trash rather than being properly disposed of.  We’re still better off.  The amount of mercury saved by not burning as much coal (compared with the incandescent lightbulb) more than makes up for the mercury put into the environment by the CFL.  [See attached graphic.]

I’m not advocating throwing CFL’s away in the trash.  Most towns and cities provide a mechanism for disposing of CFL’s.  Check out www.earth911.org’s fluorescent bulb disposal finder to find the location nearest you.

So go ahead, try out a few CFLs in your home.  They’re a buck or so more expensive but you’ll more than make your money back with lower electricity bills.