A woman in Maine broke a CFL and, rather than carefully cleaning the mess up herself, she called Home Depot. They told her not to vacuum, and directed her to call Poison Control. Poison Control directed her to the Maine DEP, who then sent an agent. The agent told her to call in a toxic waste team to give an estimate. Naturally, they told her it was going to be around $2,000. She heard that number, walled off the bedroom and alerted the local media.
Enter Fox News, where Steven “Junk Science” Milloy a well known, self-appointed “Junk Science expert” and global warming denier, writes an editorial extolling the dangers of CFLs to you, me, and our precious, precious babies.
TreeHugger addressed the “problem” of mercury in CFLs here, if you’d like to learn about it.
The fact is that unless you break the CFL, then live with your face right on the spot where it broke for the next few years, you’re probably going to die of something other than mercury poisoning. We know, life is so dangerous, isn’t it?
According to the original article quoted in the Fox News piece, the type of bulb the woman broke has about 5 milligrams of mercury, compared to say, 500 to 3,000 mg in a thermometer. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection’s spokesperson told the paper: “We encourage people not to panic if they break a lightbulb.” They’ve instructed the woman on how to properly clean up the mess, but she refuses, claiming conspiracy.
“I believe their first notion to have it cleaned professionally was correct. They told me to do it this way. Why would they change their stories when the papers got a hold of them?” she said. —MEGHANN MARCO
Fluorescent Bulb Break Creates Costly Hassle [The Ellsworth American]
Junk Science: Light Bulb Lunacy [Fox News]
The $ 2000 CFL Cleanup: Where Urban Myths Come From [TreeHugger]
Ask TreeHugger: Is Mercury from a Broken CFL Dangerous? [TreeHugger]
(Photo: Nick Gosling, The Ellsworth American)
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@JTres: “That said, how much you want to bet if any other product not endorsed by environmentalists contained “only” 5mg of mercury and was easily breakable that we’d be hearing howls of protest about their possible dangers. The greens are downplaying this because it is a product they like.”
I dislike hypocrisy as much as the next guy (and I think “greens” are often very wrong about things), but I don’t think it’s a problem to downplay the issue because it’s a product you like. Doctors recommend chemo for cancer even though they probably would try to keep its side effects from occurring in a healthy person. It’s all about tradeoffs.
My big problem here is not the hypocrisy (which is obvious as for example Greenpeace is giving computer companies a heard time for having any mercury in their products), but the scale we may be facing in the future. Green groups are making a major push to get these in every home. These bulbs can last years. Five years from now, when hopefully LED bulbs will be the norm and everyone has forgotten that mercury, these CFL are going to start dying and get tossed all at once. That little bit of mercury will become a huge problem!
@JTres: “My big problem here is not the hypocrisy (which is obvious as for example Greenpeace is giving computer companies a heard time for having any mercury in their products), but the scale we may be facing in the future.”
Point taken. As for Greenpeace, I would hope that part of their complaint is that there are products that accomplish the same good but with fewer pollutants at something approximating the same cost (perhaps a bit more). I would hope.
I swear Milloy is a commenter here. He chimed in when we started attacking ConAgra and farmers.
junkscience.com is an example of truth in advertising — but people always get it backwards — they are the ones spreading the junkscience, not reporting on it.
this website is run by FOXnews and is just as biased, but more problematic because they pretend to be scientific. My students have a very hard time determining the bias and problems with the reports from this site, and I’m teaching them how to critically analyze material. Typical web-surfers really don’t stand a chance.
This was a really interesting discussion to read. Thanks, fellow commenters.
As for the lady in the story, I just hope she doesn’t breed and pass on that sort of idiocy.
Snopes gave the $2000 cleanup its own Urban Legend:
http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/cfl.asp
which must be a record time, even for Milloy and FOX News.
Of course the cretins at the Washington Times then ran the Milloy piece the next day:
http://washingtontimes.com/commentary/20070502-092153-8028…
You have to fight back against bad, dishonest science and bad, dishonest journalism, especially when it’s this obviously politically motivated.
The real problem here is the state procedure for cleaning it up. Face it: if what the state says is true, these things are bad news. My gut tells me the Maine DEP is overreacting. However, if they are telling the truth and one of those things is potentially dangerous, I think that needs to get out. Remember, you don’t have a coal power plant in your bedroom.
Not automatically against CFLs (I think in the end they are great, actually) but someone needs to get the DEP and EPA on the same page.
The real story is the many, many thousands of bulbs that will end up in landfills around the country. That adds up to a LOT of mercury. I don’t know many people who are aware that CFL bulbs need to be treated like hazardous waste when they burn out. Remember when AA batteries contained mercury? How many people took their dead batteries to HHW sites?
Citing the 03 May Washington Times Milloy article, here comes Rush Limbaugh, to repeat this thoroughly debunked story on Friday.
Transcript:
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_050407/content…