Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs: bad for humanity

"The first, minor point I want to make is that these CFL bulbs are not brighter, I know several people who substituted supposedly equivalent CFL's for incandescents and have noted that they are much dimmer and take an irritatingly long time to come to full brightness." Given that they are required by law to be accurate in their numbers, I'd recommend that if these people are truly not getting the amount of light that the lightbulbs claim, than they file a lawsuit against the company. As of now, we have the numbers that the company is legally required to be accurate vs the accounts of several unnamed people with no ties to accuracy. As for any harm that these bulbs may actually cause, my opponent bases his entire argument around Mercury, an element which is found in CFL bulbs. My opponent uses no numbers and no sources to make his claims. That, in itself, should give voters reason to doubt, but, in the name of accuracy, I'll defend as if he did. First, the notion that Mercury is hazardous needs to be addressed. This is a common fallacy that many people make. Things are not simply "hazardous" or "not hazardous," it depends on the amounts that you take. For example, unranium is present in tap water, but at low enough levels that it is safe [1]. In fact, we see radioactive material used all the time, in safe ways, such as smoke detectors [2], watches [3], Fertalizer [3], and even some CFL bulbs [3]. The point is, not that some is dangerous, but that it is dangerous only at certain levels, and when under those levels, that substance is completely safe. This is no exception for Mercury. The second thing to point out is that CFL lightbulbs are not the only source of Mercury in your house [4]. Apart from older products (like light switches prior to 1991), Mercury is still very common in tilt switches (which are often used on thermostats), and even in your computer screen and other computer parts and in nearly every car older than 2003 [4][5]. These tilt switches can have over a gram of Mercury in them, the same amount of mercury as 300 CFL light bulbs. But the item in your house that has mercury which is most likely going to enter your body (nearly 100% chance of entering you body) is seafood. All seafood is going to have some amount of Mercury in it, which you are consuming. This includes ALL freshwater and ALL saltwater animals. The concentrations are shown here [6]. A 7 oz can of Albacore Tuna, has .353 ppm mercury in it. That means that the 7 oz can (200 g) has 70.6 micrograms of Mercury in it. And if you eat only 1 can a week, you'll be consuming the same amount of Mercury as a CFL bulb every year, and no harm will come to you from eating it. Even shark, which has .988 ppm in it, is safe to eat. This then comes to my thrid and last point, that Mercury is natural (before anyone calls out Appeal to Nature, please see that I said that everything is safe in a small amount, and dangerous in large enough amounts). All the mercury that we put in those CFL light bulbs (and all the other products that we put mercury in) comes from the environment, so if the mercury is put back into the environment (so long as it is not in high concentrations), the environment can handle it just fine. Since when a CFL breaks (if it were to), the mercury is released as a gas, not as a liquid or a solid. This means that any mercury released will quickly spread out in the environment, rather than stay in a high concentration (as it would as a solid or as a liquid). This evidence and these links should show everyone that CFLs provide no harm to anyone, and that the Mercury within them is not harmful to anyone, nor the environment. Just as the Mercury within your computers, cars, and tilt switchs are safe for you and for the environment. Thank you, [1] http://www.wise-uranium.org... [2] http://home.howstuffworks.com... [3] http://www.hps.org... [4] http://www.epa.gov... [5] http://en.wikipedia.org... [6] http://www.fda.gov...