I got back into the office today and started to go through my mail, email and voice mail when I read this message in my email box from last week:
Dear Mr. Neal,
I noticed the “Change a light” link on the home page of our city’s website. I love these lights and have installed many in my home.
Lately I have been hearing about the lights becoming an environmental concern because they contain mercury and must be disposed of at a hazardous waste site. It might be a scare tactic by the contrarians who state that you need a hazmat suit to clean up a broken bulb, but I wonder if it is wise to promote this policy when legitimate dangers have not been addressed.
It’s a fair question. Before we promote something to the public as socially or environmentally desirable, we ought to be sure that it is indeed desirable and not fraught with collateral problems. The resident’s point is well taken: What good is promoting the use of energy efficient light bulbs if they go on to make our environmental mercury problem worse?
You can learn more about the City’s Change a Light Pledge by going to the City’s website and clicking on the Change A Light Pledge link at the top of the links on the right hand side of the page. Or, you can just click the same link in the previous sentence. Either way, you will be linked to the Energy Star website that explains the Change a Light Pledge, which promotes the replacement of incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs. The City of Eden Prairie endorses the Change a Light Pledge because we believe it is a little thing that residents can do to reduce the amount of energy we are consuming as a community. The City supports the wise use of energy because we believe in conservation and the prudent use of our resources.
Included in the information about CFLs is information about the safety of CFLs. Yes, CFLs contain a small amount of mercury, but they pose no known health risks and do not require extraordinary efforts to clean up if they break or dispose of when they expire. Check the website for more information, but I think that most people can be reassured that this product is safe and effective in the average American home.
I have set about changing the old light bulbs in my house to CFLs. The color of the light takes a little getting used to, but I like it. I have not noticed much of a drop in my electrical bill yet – but I’ll be keeping an eye on that and I’ll report my results later.
