How to "go green" in the home without making things worse for our environment.

Look at the light bulbs we are using in our homes. Many people are going out purchasing the "everlasting" Fluorescent light bulbs because of the energy saving they bring... without realizing there are several 'even dangerous' downsides to these light bulbs as well.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Outside of not getting adequate lighting, and having to wait for the bulbs to "warm up", not a lot of people know that there are deadly chemicals such as Mercury inside of these light bulbs. Not many garbage services will even take them. However in 43 states it is legal to dispose of them as universal waste. They should be individually and protectively disposed of/recycled....which they are not... on a daily basis therefore getting into our drinking water. Just one teaspoon of Mercury can poison an entire lake forever.
2. For now.... Incandescent light bulbs have not disappeared completely which is a very good thing because of their friendliness of the color spectrum, no difficulties with recycling, and because their energy consumption is not a big problem. The heat which is produced by the conventional light is not lost especially during winter, which is wonderful.
3. Florescent lighting DESTROYS vitamin D daily!. Deficiency in Vitamin D has a direct relation to prostate Cancer in men and Breast Cancer in women.
4. There are other problems to having florescent bulbs such as them needing to be left on for a long while to get longer wear out of them ..rather than turning them on and then soon back off. (They are more efficient only when you leave them on for more than 2 hours.) They should only be used in moderate temperatures indoors. Most are not dimmable. Natural oils from your hands can ruin the bulb-tube....so good luck twisting it in...it shortens the life of the bulb-tube.