If this health danger has found its way into your home, you should get rid of it as soon as possible

Lights out tonight

Al Qaeda? The economic mess? The sequester? The Mid-East?

Think any of these are the gravest danger we need Washington to protect us from?

Oh…you’re so silly. It’s none of those things.

The real danger is incandescent light bulbs!

But breathe easy, Congress has already addressed this high-level national threat.

At the stroke of midnight this past New Year’s Eve, an amazing era came to an end.

By Congressional mandate, as of January, 1, 2013, 75-watt incandescent light bulbs cannot be made in the U.S. or imported to the U.S. The 75 is still on store shelves, but one day soon, it won’t be there. Gone.

That effectively ended Thomas Edison’s incandescent era that brought light to the nighttime world.

Thanks, Congress! Instead of focusing on what really needs to be done, you solved a problem that didn’t need solving!

In fact, you actually made the danger much, much worse.

As a result of this ban, that danger has probably already found its way into your home. If it has, you might be under the impression that it HAS to be there. But it doesn’t. And you should take steps to get rid of it as quickly as possible.

Trouble in the heartland

With the ban of incandescent bulbs, we are expected to turn to CFLs. As I’ve mentioned before, CFL light bulbs are a mess. And any mess that includes mercury is a colossal, dangerous mess.

Yes, CFLs use less energy, which reduces mercury emissions from power plants. But CFLs contain mercury. So we’ve removed a little mercury from the air. But we’ve brought it into our homes.

That’s an insane trade off! Inevitably, millions of these bulbs are broken, cleaned up, and tossed in the trash. That means millions of people now have direct exposure to mercury – a carcinogenic neurotoxin!

And already, the signs are grim.

According to the Association of Lighting and Mercury Recyclers, only about 2% of CFLs are properly recycled. That means the rest end up in landfills. But before they ever make it there, they’re crushed in garbage trucks.

Just based on all this, I’d say the CFL bulb is one of the worst ideas ever. But now it appears that the bulbs are dangerous even before they’re broken.

A new study shows that the bulbs emit levels of ultraviolet radiation strong enough to burn skin cells within two feet. Extended exposure may prompt melanoma skin cancer.

In other research, scientists found that CFLs release potentially carcinogenic toxins when you switch them on. This produces what they call “electrical smog” around the bulbs.

Ugh! This thing is a monster!

CFL marketing has been so successful that many believe it’s our only option to the fast fading incandescent. But it’s not.

The LED bulb is a far better choice. Until recently, LED bulbs were more expensive than CFLs. But the cost is coming down. LED bulbs also last longer than CFLs. They’re mercury free. And they don’t emit harmful levels of UV rays. (LED bulbs in tanning beds are different from commercial LED bulbs.)

My hope is that the CFL era will soon be on the way out. After all, when midnight arrived on New Year’s Eve, ending the incandescent era, hundreds of LED bulbs lit the Times Square ball.

Not a CFL in sight.

Sources:
“Study: Some Eco-Friendly Light Bulbs May Put Health At Risk” CBS, 1/2/13, miami.cbslocal.com

“Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs: A New Cancer Risk in Your Home” Alliance for Natural Health, 2/19/13, anh-usa.org