CFL bulbs should be banned

SOS. Compact fluorescent light bulbs are poor choices to conserve energy. Each bulb contains about five milligrams of mercury. That small amount can create high levels of vapor in the air if a CFL bulb breaks. Mercury can cause seizures, dizziness, headache, spastic paralysis and much more.

The vapor is much more harmful that the metal itself. Because mercury is quite volatile, care must also be taken to avoid breathing its vapor even at room temperature. It is best to leave immediately for 15 minutes when one of these bulbs break, closing doors so that the vapors will not escape to another room. Afterward, open the windows and scrape up the bulb fragments, putting them in a sealed glass jar (mercury can migrate through plastic) and take the jar to the hazardous waste collection site, because the ballast (the portion between the spirally wound glass and the screw base) can sometimes start a fire.

As Iowa is first in the nation for the caucus, so Iowa can be first in the nation to ban these CFL bulbs. Call Gov. Branstad and your Iowa legislators to stop the use of CFL bulbs to be the law of the land in 2012. Call U.S. Sen. Grassley at (319) 232-6657 or (202) 224-3744 or Sen. Harkin at (515) 284-4574 or (202) 224-3254.

Marcella Gruver

Waterloo