Energy Efficient Globes - Who Do they Save?

Australia and a few other places in the world have mandated a shift to energy efficient light globes. These are a fluorescent based unit that work by heating up mercury vapor to give a white light. They are more energy efficient than the tungsten incandescent globes in common use up until now.

That is the plus side and the only part that the CO2 bigots are interested in.

The government has a scheme where a company will come into your home and replace all the incandescent lights for free. My parents recently had this done. The globes will not work for a dimmer switch so that means the old bulbs will need to stick around for a while yet.

When a new globe breaks it releases mercury vapor. Measurements by the relevant authorities in the US find the levels to be 100 times that of normal even some time later. They globes are made in China where workers are exposed to and die from mercury poisoning on a regular basis. Factories were shut down because of this but because of the new demand from Carbon crazy Westerners they have been re-opened to meet the demand. Apparently the globes have been known to leak, I'm guessing due to the high manufacturing standards found in China at the moment.

Disposal recommendations include vacating the room to air for a minimum of 20 minutes. Keeping pregnant women out for the room until it has been well aired. The item itself must be collected and packed into a sealed container and taken to a disposal area for handling.

The disposal and dangers are not common knowledge. Most people just wrap it up and dump it in the trash. No information is given by the people who go around to houses and put them in for free.

So we have a special interest group pushing for a technology to avert a fake problem (CO2). They are not interested or concerned that people are dying to provide the technology. They are not concerned enough to tell people how dangerous the globes are if broken or the disposal issues. About the only good thing the globes do is use less power.