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Here’s a new candidate for a Now-They-Tell-Us Award:
Eco-friendly light bulbs.
You know that your federal government will soon outlaw
incandescent light bulbs, thereby forcing you to buy what are called
eco-friendly light bulbs.
Thereby we can all show our love for the Goddess Nature,
whether we like it or not.
Now, it turns that these eco-friendly light bulbs are
decidedly unfriendly to your skin cells.
CBS Miami reports:
Money
saving, compact fluorescent light bulbs emit high levels of ultra violet
radiation, according to a new study. Research at Long Island’s Stony Brook
found that the bulbs emit rays so strong that they can actually burn skin and
skin cells.
“The
results were that you could actually initiate cell death,” said Marcia Simon, a
Professor of Dermatology.
Exposure
to the bulbs could lead to premature again and skin cancer, according to
doctors.
“It can
also cause skin cancer in the deadliest for, and that’s melanoma,” said Dr.
Rebecca Tung.
The scientists recommend that you keep a safe distance,
about two feet, from the bulbs that are damaging your skin cells and exposing
you to an increased cancer risk.
But, don’t worry: you’re saving the planet.
5 comments:
Very often you read these news stories and find that the results have been translated incorrectly. I followed the links to the source (as far as the study's abstract), and this is indeed the conclusion: CFL bulbs emit elevated UVC and UVA radiation, which can lead to skin cancer.
The most alarming part of all this is the public policy decisions of our political leaders. They have decided that we all have no idea what is best for us, and will tell us whether we can use incandescent lightbulbs or the eco-alternative CFLs, which contain mercury.
The scandal I suspect is behind all this is a form of crony capitalism, as in General Electric getting a gift from the political class. It is well known that GE's lighting business was a dog. They couldn't sell it, margins were razor-thin. The reason they gave was partly nostalgic: GE traces its existence back to Thomas A. Edison and the infrastructure to power all those incandescent lightbulbs he invented.
So what did GE do? They hired a bunch of lobbyists to go to Capitol Hill and rescue them by making the GE Lighting business profitable again. How? By making U.S. citizens buy more expensive lightbulbs. But subsidies didn't work. What do you do then? Well, you ban them. So now you don't have a choice. You can buy (expensive) CFLs or (even more expensive) LEDs. Pretty cool trick, eh?
I do not understand why journalists haven't noticed this play and called legislators on it. Perhaps it's because they're scared of GE. But I suspect that it's because of their allegiance to the "green" cause. Whatever the case, the public gets screwed.
Tip
As Glenn Reynolds says (for 60W at least) "there's still time to stock up." I have a couple of cases in the basement, and am buying more every time there's a sale.
Otherwise, I agree with Tip.
Gee. I'm not getting a tan from mine.
The journos, though, know that Green is the mantra and the One True Faith, and will not become apostates. Less they be discarded like unto an incandescent bulb.
I don't buy them because of the disposal. You need to treat a broken CFL bulb like toxic waste, leave the rooms, open the windows and allow the fumes to dissapate for 2 hours before entering again to dispose of it in an enviromentally safe way. Who is going to do that? I just mentioned it to my office mates and they have no idea.
A few years from now they will be talking about the environmental fall out from "green" CFLs.
Although eco-friendly trends are not always good for people, we've made so much harm for our nature, that we have to protect it now. Here are some ideas concerning it:
eco-friendly house
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