Too Many Chinese Anyway

Cut CO2 emissions by killing Chinese workers!

No matter how much distaste (and distrust) I feel for the Chinese government, I do not hate the Chinese people, and it sickens me to think that in the name of Saving the Planet (and General Electric) we are contributing to the illness and death of thousands of workers who are laboring to supply us with mercury-laden Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs.

Large numbers of Chinese workers have been poisoned by mercury, which forms part of the compact fluorescent light bulbs. A surge in foreign demand, set off by a European Union directive making these bulbs compulsory within three years, has also led to the reopening of mercury mines that have ruined the environment.

Doctors, regulators, lawyers and courts in China - which supplies two thirds of the compact fluorescent bulbs sold in Britain - are increasingly alert to the potential impacts on public health of an industry that promotes itself as a friend of the earth but depends on highly toxic mercury.

Making the bulbs requires workers to handle mercury in either solid or liquid form because a small amount of the metal is put into each bulb to start the chemical reaction that creates light.

Mercury is recognised as a health hazard by authorities worldwide because its accumulation in the body can damage the nervous system, lungs and kidneys, posing a particular threat to babies in the womb and young children.

Not only is the European Union mandating the use of CFLs, so is our own government, a little "nightmare before Christmas" treat that George W. Bush signed into law last year. By 2012 you can kiss your incandescent bulbs goodbye. By the way, incandescent bulbs were made in Kentucky, but those plants are having to close.

The CFL bulb is also the subject of recent disappointment and unnerving reports that show that many bulbs are not as long-lived as they were advertised, and the breakage and disposal problems are quite the horror story. If you have CFLs, you'd better know the safety hazards, which the EPA discusses HERE.

Even if global warming were true, I would find it hard to rationalize the deaths of Chinese workers to save the planet from a one or two degree temperature rise.

What is really taking place is that GE is enthusiastically trying to become part of the government so that it can rule our lives along with the other commissars of the People's Elect.

Power and profit, to hell with the market, when regulation is so much more efficient!

God help us all.