Marcion's Journal: Low-energy bulbs full of mercury

So the Beeb reports that Low-energy light-bulbs are full of toxic mercury dust that can get lodged into my brain (as if it wasn't full enough of chemicals as it is).

Typical, I recently changed all the bulbs in my house from cheap normal bulbs to these expensive ones, saving the planet and all that. So what now? Go back to the old ones? LCDs? Candles? Sit in the dark?

Mercury

[rauckman]

Don't change them all back yet. Here is the deal, Lights use electricity, a lot of electricity comes from burning coal, burning coal releases mercury into the air. So by using less energy, less mercury is released into the air than is in the compact fluorescent bulb by a factor of maybe around 5. Plus there is less Cadmium, sulfur, carbon dioxide etc being released or produced. So it is a win win game, you save more money on energy than the pricey little bulb costs, you save falling of the ladder to get