i have nowhere else to go

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isn’t this a fabulous room?

i had to start off tonight with something pretty cause behind the scenes, i’ve been obsessing about something that is not pretty at all! my mom and i were having one of our usual political debates when we stumbled onto a topic we were both passionate about (on the same side, even)! it was the proposed ban on regular light bulbs in favor of the new CFLs or Compact Fluorescent Light models.

(i can’t bear to have an ugly CFL on this site, glad to have found a pretty pic at least)!

i don’t want to overload you as there’s so much information, so i actually started a new blog, Stopping at the Green Light, where i’ve been compiling information about the dangers. briefly, General Electric came up with the idea and has spent millions lobbying world wide to have the new bulbs implemented. before gw bush left office, they convinced him and everyone else that these bulbs are safer and more efficient and made a pact to reinvent the market. as for the efficiency, it turns out the opposite it true. if you haven’t already, please read up on these CFLs, and not on the producer’s websites. they contain mercury and harmful vapors if broken and take a ton more energy to produce than regular bulbs. if that’s not enough, GE has moved it’s factories from the US to china where they’re having some really lethal issues with the mercury already. GE would like us to think they’re enLightening us but they’re really just serving their own agenda. besides the additional energy needed to make these, everything from the disposal to the hazards is just not green at all.

anyway, it’s been plaguing me and this is the only place i felt i could come to get it off my chest and out into the ether. i have a million things i care about but this one is looming in the near future. not to mention that so many believe these lights are soooo green, and that couldn’t be farther from the truth. please look into it yourself, the blog has lots of links and research to learn a lot more. please visit and tell me what you think about the debate.

this is from treehugger.com:

Mercury in CFLs are present as elemental (or metallic) mercury. Once spilled, you can be exposed to elemental mercury by touching it, after which it can be eaten and/or absorbed through your skin. More importantly for health, you can also be exposed to mercury through the air, as elemental mercury vaporizes readily (essentially becomes a gas) and can thus be inhaled into your lungs. Breathing elemental mercury into your lungs is generally more dangerous than if you ate the mercury or absorbed it through your skin. Once inhaled, the mercury vapor can damage the central nervous system, kidneys, and liver.

Even though mercury from the broken CFL is not likely to be dangerous, it would be wise to take extra precautions to minimize mercury exposures. The US EPA publishes guidelines about the specific steps that you should take to clean up mercury in the event that a CFL breaks in your home. Briefly, EPA recommends that (1) you immediately open windows to reduce mercury concentrations inside your home; (2) you do not touch the spilled mercury; (3) you clean up the broken CFL glass carefully and immediately (but not with your hands or a vacuum cleaner), and (4) you wipe the affected area with a paper towel to remove all glass fragments and mercury. EPA further recommends that you place the paper towel and glass fragments in a sealed plastic bag and bring the sealed bag to your local Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Collection Site.

is that green to you?

Stopping at the Green Light

whew, i feel better now, knowing you’re here. i’m about to launch it right now.

back to beauty and joy tomorrow~xoc