Even more bright ideas
Re “How much savings does it take to change one?” Feb. 24
The Times’ reporting on replacing incandescent lightbulbs with more energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs left out one glaring and important issue: the presence of mercury in fluorescent bulbs. Break one in your house or yard and you expose your immediate environment to a dangerous neurotoxin. Throw it in the garbage and you risk exposing sanitation workers to the same threat. If it makes it to the landfill in one piece, you’re introducing mercury into the environment.
So before marketers, retailers and The Times jump on the fluorescent bandwagon, measures need to be taken to inform the public about the hazards contained in this product and convenient ways devised for its proper disposal. How many people are going to travel to a hazardous-waste facility for a single lightbulb?
DAVID DIEHNEL
Palm Springs
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The Times printed a table comparing the cost of incandescent and fluorescent bulbs. The table stated that the average retail price of a fluorescent bulb is $8.39, and the cost of electricity is 8.5 cents per kilowatt hour. I just bought a six-pack of fluorescent bulbs for $9.89 (cost per bulb is $1.65) and my latest electricity bill shows that I am paying about 20 cents per kilowatt hour. At these prices, switching to fluorescent bulbs is a no-brainer.
STEVEN G. SOGO
Laguna Beach
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It didn’t take me long to be turned off -- pun intended -- by the new lightbulb proposal. The second paragraph states that California lawmakers are considering banning the sale of old-fashioned incandescent bulbs by 2012. So in one swift stroke of the pen, I will be deprived of freedom of choice. It is interesting to see how easily the bill’s sponsor, Assemblyman Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys), discharges my loss of freedom as “a simple idea.” Democrats like Levine rarely see a solution to a problem that does not involve the government at some level.
BOB FRANZ
Placentia
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I use compact fluorescent lightbulbs in my home wherever I can. But I can’t find fluorescent bulbs for applications such as enclosed fixtures, decorative bulbs and certain outdoor lighting. To accommodate these situations would require the replacement of these fixtures, which would be expensive. Until manufacturers fill these gaps in fluorescent bulb availability, we need to be able to purchase at least some incandescent lightbulbs.
BOB ABRAHAMS
Los Angeles
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Kudos to The Times for choosing to run a front-page article on energy savings rather than other, more polarizing or negative news. By changing our household lightbulbs, we can help stem global warming and reduce our dependence on Middle Eastern oil.
ART GODDARD
Costa Mesa