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BGonline.org Forums
CFC's-where are the real environmentalists?
Posted By: happyjuggler0 In Response To: Global warming (Barry Murphy)
Date: Thursday, 24 April 2008, at 4:18 p.m.
There is no way we should be buying CFC's. LED's are going to be superstars sometime in the next couple of years as they are already moving rapidly down the cost curve and for similar reasons to microchips it is predictable that they will continue to do so.
At the same time, CFC's do indeed have mercury. How many people do you know that will dispose of them properly when they conk out, or worse, when they break? 1%? 2%?
The "experts" say the mercury vapor when they break is too small to worry about, but they also advise you to not breathe in the room when you break one, to open the windows and close the door to the room (assuming the room has a door). When you do finally clean up the mess you are strongly told not to use the vacuum cleaner, but instead to use a broom and dustpan. This is fine unless you have a shag rug I suppose, but how many people know any of this?
They say the mercury vapor is too small to negatively affect us, but I can't see how they ever did controlled experiments on the issue, especially with children with developing brains and bodies. In reality they simply don't know the effect on children, but I can guarantee you that roughhousing kids who break the living room lightbulb aren't going to follow the procedures outlined above, they are going to be breathing heavily and bendng over the brokem bulb and cleaning it up fast before the folks find out.
Again, I also don't see very many people disposing of either whole bulbs or broken bulbs as if they were hazardous waste. Likely all that mercury (small by itself, but amongst 90 million households it adds up fast) will simply be put into the trashcan and we can simply cross outr fingers it doesn't contaminate our water somewhere down the line.
Also, CFC's suck in rooms with a lot of water vapor, such as the bathroom. They have a nasty tendency to go out and stay out until they dry off. I'm waiting for LED's. Politicians in some places who want to be seen as "doing something" are beginning to ban regular lightbulbs before LED's are quite ready. Personally I think it is the CFC's that should be banned.
By the way, did you know that they are all made in China because the weird and delicate shape is too hard to mechanize? What are the odds that those workers who hand craft these are wearing proper breathing filters so that they aren't poisoned by mercury vapor while they make the suckers?
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