20080326 Too Little, Too Late - Media Discover Mercury in Fluorescent Bulbs by the Business and Media Institute

Too Little, Too Late - Media Discover Mercury in Fluorescent Bulbs by the Business and Media Institute

Each CFL contains about 5 milligrams of mercury. That’s enough for state environmental agencies to recommend complicated and expensive cleanups for accidental bulb breaks in homes.

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20070913 Light Bulb Efficiency Standards

Too Little, Too Late - Media Discover Mercury in Fluorescent Bulbs

Journalists' beloved 'eco-friendly' lights now considered more dangerous than originally thought, after government mandate required their use.

By Nathan Burchfiel

Business & Media Institute

3/26/2008

What is it about government mandates that curse innovation to failure?

Ethanol turned out to be more environmentally harmful than the fossil fuels it was replacing via federal mandate. Now scientists understand the “green” compact fluorescent light bulbs to be dangerous because they contain mercury.

While scientists couldn’t agree on just how beneficial compact fluorescent light bulbs were, journalists on network news shows had widely agreed that CFLs are a good thing.

“They last 10 times longer and they’re really great for the environment,” Kris Connell of Real Simple Magazine said on “The Early Show” March 10.

Each of the three broadcast networks has featured the bulbs and promoted them as energy-efficient, environmentally friendly alternatives to traditional incandescent bulbs. Journalists and others who support the bulbs touted their benefits but rarely focused on the potential risks.

NBC’s “Today” show featured the bulbs on its “Today Goes Green” series Jan. 23, 2008, as one way average Americans can adjust their lives to be more “environmentally friendly.”

“If every American home replaced just one incandescent bulb with a CFL, in one year it would save enough energy to light more than three million American homes and prevent greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those of more than 800,000 cars,” co-host Meredith Vieira said.

“Replace just one of your standard light bulbs with one of those curly compact fluorescent lamps,” Diane Sawyer suggested on ABC’s “Good Morning America” April 20. “If every household in the U.S. replaced just one standard bulb with a CFL tomorrow … it would be like taking 2 million cars off the road.”

The Sept. 28, 2007, CBS “Early Show” even said “going green,” including switching from traditional incandescent bulbs to CFLs, was “good for your health, it’s good for your pocketbook, and it’s good for the environment.”

The print media joined in. USA Today called them the “wave of the future” in March 2007. The Los Angeles Times said in April 2007 the bulbs “would be good for the environment and consumers’ pocketbooks.”

With this help from the media, proponents of the bulbs convinced Congress to ban incandescent light bulbs in the energy bill President Bush signed into law in Dec. 19, 2007. The bill increases efficiency standards and effectively bans traditional bulbs by 2014, a timetable considered a victory by supporters like Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., who was the first to introduce legislation that would ban the bulbs.

But what the media ignored or downplayed in the run-up to the ban was that CFLs contain mercury, a highly toxic metal infamous for its presence in thermometers. In the last two years, network news shows mentioned the CFL-mercury link only seven times. Four of the reports came after the incandescent ban had already been signed into law.

Each CFL contains about 5 milligrams of mercury. That’s enough for state environmental agencies to recommend complicated and expensive cleanups for accidental bulb breaks in homes.

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection recommended a woman contact a hazardous waste cleanup company when a CFL broke on her child’s bedroom carpet, sending the mercury level to more than six times the “safe” limit. The crew estimated the cleanup would cost $2,000.

The Maine DEP no longer recommends such an expensive cleanup process, but now suggests a 14-point cleanup plan.

The 5 milligrams of mercury are also enough to contaminate 6,000 gallons of water beyond safe drinking levels, according to a March 19 MSNBC.com article that “extrapolated from Stanford University research on mercury.”

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