With the economy in a state of distress, many individuals around the nation are looking for ways to lower the cost of everyday living. The cost to produce energy and the explosive demand for it has many people looking to lower the amount of kilowatts on the monthly power bill.
Many Avista customers, like myself, have received a little care package from the company and inside of it was eight compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs. At first, I was kind of stoked to get some free bulbs that will ultimately lower power consumption in my apartment. But then, I got to the extra paperwork included and started to notice one thing about these bulbs: they contain mercury.
Thinking back to Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland,” I recalled what the effects of mercury poisoning were from the character of the Mad Hatter.
It was believed that people who cured the felt on hats and those who wore the hats in the early 18th and 19th century were exposed to huge amounts of mercury and that lead to psychological disturbances and impairments. Mercury use has since then been banned in the manufacturing of hats and has been classified as toxic to humans, since we can absorb the liquid metal element through our skin.
Yet, now we have light bulbs being distributed around the area that each contain four milligrams of mercury each. It seems like a risk to even handle these bulbs since breaking it could release a small amount of mercury for us to either inhale or absorb through the skin. Russ Leslie of the magazine Popular Mechanics said that there is no harm unless we “wipe up the mercury [without a glove] and then lick” our hand. I don’t even want to take the chance.
On top of that, the pamphlet suggests that everyone recycle these light bulbs to prevent the release of mercury into the environment. With the fact that many people can’t or don’t recycle, I don’t see how these light bulbs are any better than a good old-fashioned incandescent.
As I researched more about these CFLs online, I was shocked to learn about something else even more tragic. A George W. Bush-era piece of legislation is going into effect next year that will end the manufacture of incandescent light bulbs. Soon we won’t have the option to buy the old-fashioned light bulbs and will be stuck with these efficient, yet evil, CFLs.
So I find myself fighting contradictions to my belief system. Of course, I believe in reducing electrical use since much of our electricity is coming from coal and natural gas turbines. This is where the power saving ideal of the CFLs seems great. Where we burn 40 watts of energy an hour with the old school light bulbs, the CFLs only use 9-13 watts instead. Yet, the fact that these things are destructive to our environment conflicts me internally, since I don’t need any extra mercury absorption beyond the dosages we can all get from eating fish.
It boils down to power companies, like Avista, and the government looking for quick fixes without addressing the real problem. Ultimately, we need to go to green power. We need to establish wind turbines and lay the deserts with some solar panels. It is something said time and time again and whether it makes an impact, I can’t tell.
I do know one thing for certain, though. If we don’t find real solutions to the energy problem, we will continue to be told what is best for us. We will continue to let companies produce products that can make us go crazy. We may one day find ourselves talking gibberish to one another under our CFL lights asking the question “would you like some more tea?”
Opinions expressed in editorial and opinion articles are the views of individual NIC students. These views do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Sentinel, North Idaho College, or any other organizations or groups there-in. North Idaho College is not responsible for the accuracy of statements or opinions shared.
