M. Maguss
Great to see the progress but do you realize that compact florescent bulbs contain lead in them!! When they burn out most people will dispose of the CFLs in garbage and then into landfill sites. Next problem will be all the LEAD in the landfills!! That will not help our precious planet!! Has anyone looked at this problem????

Bruce Hayter
Great less energy used. ButI worry about the mercury in the compact flouresent bulbs. What about the cost to produce the ceramic base and toxic waste disposal when the bulb burns out.

John Buick
I've been using CFLs for years. They have proved to be a farce. The failure rate is much higher than incandescent bulbs. I just have to use more power to heat my house.

The heavy metals used in manufacturing of CFLs is a environmental hazard.

air
hello to everyone.

i am in the process of switching all my old light bulbs at home, to the new engergy effiecent ones and ive run into a problem. i dont have a/c in my home, i have ceiling fans to help move the air around. most of them are on dimmers. i havent been able to find a kind of energy bulb that can be used with them. are they going to make them soon? or will we all need to change the whole switch as well? also, ive noticed that no ones talking about the fact that our new lights still contain mercury; will scientists able to find a "cure" for that as well?

thanks for your time, i didnt know where else to ask these questions!

Jenny
It is true that CFL bulbs contain a small amount of mercury, and that because of this they need to be disposed of by proper methods. This can be inconvenient for consumers depending on the resources available in their community. In the Vancouver area (where we are located) there are drop-off locations for these bulbs at various stores, including Canadian Tire, Rona, and other Hardware stores. There is a list available from BC Hydro (http://www.bchydro.com/powersmart/elibrary/elibrary40640.html) of locations; perhaps Ontario's Hydro One has a similar list available. Here is their website: http://www.hydroone.com/ - you may be able to find out where to drop off bulbs by contacting them.



Here is a fact sheet on Mercury in Compact Fluorescent bulbs by the US Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.energystar.gov/ia/products/lighting/buyers_guide/Mercury.pdf. General Electric also has an FAQ on the bulbs. http://www.gelighting.com/na/home_lighting/ask_us/faq_compact.htm

Martin Steinheber
I would like to know how much more energy is required to manufacture one CFL lightbulb over an incandescent one, to calculate the net savings of energy. The assumptions made for energy and money savings on advertisements seem biased towards the CFL. (1000 versus 10000 hours). You can buy incandescent bulbs with a rated life of 6000 hours now, which cost slightly more than a cheap one. I bought my first CFLs years ago and have never been able to get near the 10000 hour lifespan. However you can extend the lifespan of a CFL by reducing cycles, since it is the starter that determines the lifespan of a CFL. If you avoid short cycles on it and leave the light on instead you can extend the life of it. Here goes some of the savings. The fact is likely that CFLs make sense in certain but not all applications.

Mike
I think this is crazy decision. Makig ban these lights will not change anything. They should leave them out, and phase them out when time comes for it,

David Suzuki stop this insanity !!!

Lars Forss
I like the idea of the CFL bulbs as something that provides the same benefit (light) at lower power consumption and I do replace any lightbulb that burns out with CFL ones.

BUT: I think that we loose the perspective on what really uses up energy in comparison.

I made an estimate that I would have to run an 20W CFL that replaced an 60W normal bulb for 4000 hours to save the equivalent of one liter of gasoline...

Jamie Hardy
How is it that the Ontario government is praised lavishly for small steps like this? But not criticized for other steps that contribute to climate change. Dalton McGuinty & Buzz Hargrove have come out publicly against ANY policy that would harm the auto industry. Why isn't that reported.?

Bruce Hayter
I went and looked at the fact sheet that Jenny referred to and it states that each bulb contains about 4 mg of mercury. I have 32 bulbs in my house thats 128 mg of mercury; this is not a small amount! 4 mg represents 40 times the maximum allowable exposure per cubic metre of air allowed by the US Occupational Health and Safety Administration for a worker to be exposed to at a single dose. And the permissible exposure limit for an 8 hour period is 0.025 mg/m3 which is a 160th of 4 mg. (Fischer Scientific MSDS source of exposure limits)

R. Gauthier
It amazes me that it will take until 2012 to ban them. What prohibits Ontario from achieving this in 2009? If this were a poison food recall, it would be achieved within days.

Yan Provencher
What's the use of such measure when people dispose their garbage on the side of the road and no one comes to clean the mess.

The government of Ontario is once again spinning empty wheels on this issue and is

using propanganda to promote some kind of environmentalist agenda when the most basic things are not even done by the people.

When are we going to see a greener police that penalizes the people who throw their garbage out of the window when they are driving their car? When are we going to see people willing to get their hands dirty to clean up that mess and pick up the garbage on the side of the road?

When are we going to see a deposit implemented on soft drink bottles and aluminum cans like there is in all of the other provinces????

If Ontario is so green as it pretends to be, shall its citizen use common sense and take care of the most basic things? Recycling and disposing of garbage carefully and with respect???

Best regards.

Martin Gerber
Dear Critics,

When dealing with this sort of situation, it is important that we look at both sides of the scale. As far as mercury emissions go, the production of an incandescent light bulb actually produces more mercury. This is because of the amount of mercury released in coal fired plants.

The coal burned to produce an incandescent lightbulb produces about 13.6mg of mercury, while the amount used to produce a CFL only releases 3.3mg. The amount that is actually inside the CFL is around 4-5mg (totalling 7.3-8.3mg).

It is better for the environment if this mercury is secured in these lightbulbs rather than emitted to the environment since when its in the atmosphere, it gets to the water and then into our fish and we are exposed to it. If it is in the lightbulbs and we recycle them properly, we should see no ill effects from that 4mg of mercury per bulb.

Of course, this is provided that people dispose of them via the proper route (which I understand is impossible to enforce). You can drop your incandescent lightbulbs of at IKEA (apparently).

Martin.

P.S. Bruce Hayter, you can relax. Unless you break every lightbulb in your house simultaneously and then vapourize the mercury within, you don't need to worry about anything you just said.

Don Smith
The energy minister's announcement on the CFL's lacked a few things. He never mentioned the mercury problem if the cfl is broken or burnt out or how they are to be disposed of as they they can not go into the regular garbage or landfill.

Sheryl
Intersting points on the lead and mercury! I do know that when the burn out they can be a FIRE hazzard...they do not work well in older buidings with older receptacles..I also wonder about the dimmer lights as I have pot lights and cannot use them either..and also what of the "chadelier bulbs?" and what aobut all the jobs lost...I also know that most times the manufacturing of energy saving items cause more havoc on the environement, than the original item itself...Recycling is a good case study in itself.

Sherry Hu
In response to the first comment above, I have always thought that CFL are recyclable. I actually saw recycling box at Vancouver Ikeas. I am hoping this is true; and neweer/safer CFL is on its way to Canadian market.

Gordon
We won't be able to solve the mercury problem if there's no humans left on the planet due to global warming.

Prioritize your goals and our risks; we can't be perfect all at once.

Dan LaRiviere
I am all for reducing energy consumption but I do not agree with a ban on regular light bulbs. I think the regular light bulb is a better choice where the light is turned on and off a lot and it is mostly left off. I also think regular light bulbs are a reasonable choice for areas that are normally heated. Raise the price of regular bulbs to that of CFls and use them where appropriate.

Geoff
Global warming is happening. The sun is responsible for it.

Glad you recognize we should get right onto the lightbulb issue Gordon.