The Poisoning of America

One of the first laws passed after the Democrats took control of Congress and the Presidency in 2008 was an Environmental bill outlawing Edison's incandescent bulb that we all have been using for over 100 years. Instead, by 2014, we will only be allowed to buy the new CFL bulbs to save energy. These CFL bulbs have one thing in common - they all contain mercury, a highly toxic and dangerous poison, even in very small amounts. In fact, the mercury in one CFL bulb has enough mercury to poison 6,000 gallons of water to unsafe drinking levels. One light bulb! If you drop and break one of these bulbs in your own home, you cannot just sweep it up and throw it out. If you do, your home will remain dangerously poisoned. You need to immediately turn off your air heating or cooling systems. Then you need to hire someone trained in hazardous waste at a cost of two to three thousand dollars to make your home safe again to live in. As Americans throw out spent bulbs in the trash, the mercury poison will eventually leech into our land, water, and food supply, poisoning all of us. Mercury poisoning is a very serious, life-threatening toxin. To add insult to injury, the old incandescent bulbs were made by American firms. All of them (or their bulb divisons in larger companies like GE) have gone out of business. The curvature required for the new CFL bulbs cannot be one by machine. They must be done manually. If done in the USA, the expense would be unaffordable. So now all new light bulbs are made in China and other low cost countries. This law is dangerous, foolish, and lacks basic common sense. Once the poison mercury enters our land, water, and food supply it will be very difficult and extremely expensive to get rid of it. Maybe even impossible.