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Interviews + Opinion

Why Are CFLs Scary And Household Chemicals Like Ammonia Are Not?

Craig DiLouie March 18, 2011

Part of the backlash against compact fluorescent lamps has been that they contain mercury.

The argument doesn’t hold up on one level, which is that incandescent lamps require more power, which means power plants must burn more fossil fuels to satisfy that requirement, and thereby emit more mercury into the environment than CFLs. This type of mercury is aerosolized, is spread across the environment, and is more dangerous.

Part of the backlash has been to quote scary EPA requirements for cleaning up CFLs as a way to discredit their potentially positive environmental impact. I never understood the fear these requirements are supposed to produce. A lot of people use ammonia for cleaning, but look at the safety recommendations for handling that. What about bleach? What about other household cleaners?

Makes you wonder.

author avatar
Craig DiLouie
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Launched in 2001, LightNOW covers the rapidly changing lighting world for lighting people. Check-in daily to see new posts by Editor David Shiller, Craig DiLouie, and other experts in the lighting field including consultants and lighting designers. Posts include news items to keep you up to date, short opinion pieces to invite you to consider another point of view, new products every Monday, and links to new research and tools to help you design with light. Also be sure to subscribe to the LightNOW newsletter (free), which is published every two weeks as a digest of articles on the site. We always welcome your feedback, so feel free to comment on any of the stories that appear here at LightNOW. If you are a manufacturer, LightNOW offers a low-cost ad vehicle to reach thousands of specifiers, contractors, reps, distributors, consultants, owners, and other stakeholders in the sales channel. For advertising inquiries, contact Suelynn Shiller. Thank you for visiting, and we hope you find LightNOW useful for your career in lighting

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