Why does my friend say CFL lightbulbs are bad for the environment?

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Why does my friend say CFL lightbulbs are bad for the environment?

He said that CFL lightbulbs only save you money and energy, which does not translate into helping the environment. he went on to say that, "if you have a non-poluting source of energy, why posion the environment with posionous cfl lightbulbs?" I don't get it, aren't cfl lightbulbs made of non-toxic materials? they're green aren't they? what does he mean?

Boy have you been suckered in by the lies from environmentalists. CFLs contain mercury which is very dangerous.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/articl…

And they don't save you money. Because of the high up front cost it will take 20 years to get the savings in electricity to pay for the bulb. They don't last that long.

Don't trust anything with a "green" label.

Green = scam

You should learn not to trust any claims about being green.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story…

Actully in this silence area nothing is good and nothing is bad.

Small amount of poison is medicine and vice versa.

Like that may be CFL has little bit properties which are hazardous for environment but as compared to fuel saving and power saving view the hazardousness is negligible.

Because to make a 1Kw electricity we have to exhaust 1 Kg of CO2. If you use 100W bulb for 10 hours same amount of CO2 will be exhausted in case of CFL in 100 Hrs.

Now you can think that way....

Source(s):

My knowledge of electricity generation

Everything that is manufactured has some impact on the environment.But CFL's are a net win.Yes, they contain mercury, which is poisonous.But coal also contains mercury, and burning it releases the metal into the atmosphere.

At a recent talk, I heard that 290 million CFL's were sold in this country in 2007.The electricity they saved, if generated by burning coal, would have contributed over 100 metric tons of mercury to the atmosphere.In contrast, if every single one of those bulbs was broken, the total mercury would be 0.16 metric ton.But we don't just break them open.At least in California, CFL's must be recycled, and the mercury is extracted responsibly.

The newer LED bulbs have essentially no mercury at all, and use even less energy, by the way.We just got a couple ($10 each) at Home Depot, and they seem to work well.

He said that CFL lightbulbs only save you money and energy, which does not translate into helping the environment. he went on to say that, "if you have a non-poluting source of energy, why posion the environment with posionous cfl lightbulbs?" I don't get it, aren't cfl lightbulbs made of non-toxic materials? they're green aren't they? what does he mean?