Posted by superdrove on
URL: https://www.es-forum.com/Light-Bulb-Ban-tp4027006.html

I am passinig this information on:


Cellular Phone Task Force
To info@cellphonetaskforce.org
Dec 23, 2013

This is your last chance to stock up on ordinary light bulbs, because it
will be illegal to manufacture or import them into the United States as
of January 1, 2014.  Please remind everyone.

In case you think it will be easy to travel to another country and bring
some back with you, most countries in the world either have already
banned incandescent bulbs or are in process of doing so.

The U.S., Canada, Malaysia and South Korea are banning them as of next
week.  Cuba banned them in 2007, Australia in 2010, the UK in 2011. The
entire European Union banned them as of September 1, 2012, and Israel
banned bulbs over 60 watts in January 2012.  Tajikistan prohibited them
as of 2009, and Russia plans to complete its phase-out next year.
China, where most incandescents are now manufactured, is scheduled to
ban 60 watt bulbs as of October 1, 2014, and 15 watt bulbs two years
later.  Mexico and all other Central American countries have agreed to
end sales of incandescents by the end of 2016, and the Economic
Community of West African States plans a complete phase-out before 2020.

The only country I have discovered where a ban is not underway is New
Zealand, which returned to sanity in 2008 and scrapped plans to prohibit
the bulbs.  I hope that is still true.  Perhaps my New Zealand contacts
can update me.

Also, although India's official policy is to eventually get rid of
ordinary, cheap, safe bulbs that emit warm and friendly light, it is
finding it difficult to enforce a ban on a billion less-than-wealthy
people.

Although halogen replacements are being touted by some as a safe (though
more expensive) variation on the incandescent bulb that is still legal
in the United States (the European Union has plans to ban them too by
September 1, 2016), they produce a hotter, bluer light, emit more
ultraviolet, and contain iodine or bromine.

The war on traditional light bulbs is being driven by profit.  There is
no valid environmental reason to ban them.  All the alternatives are
much more energy-intensive (and therefore costly and polluting) to
manufacture, and even the waste heat given off by incandescents (at
least in middle and high latitudes) contributes to the heating of our
homes during large parts of the year and must be replaced by gas or oil.

I need not mention the violation of human rights that is occurring.
Large numbers of people with disabilities are unable to use any of the
alternatives.

If anyone has information or discussion to contribute on this subject,
please email or call me.

Arthur Firstenberg
phone: 1-505-471-0129
--
  Cellular Phone Task Force
  info@cellphonetaskforce.org