Nonsense of the day: Compact fluorescents are dangerous, says Junk Science's Milloy

Compact fluorescents are dangerous but a better option than incandescents bulbs. They use less energy and will bring down emissions. I too will use compact fluorescent bulbs and will dispose of them properly when they no longer work. As for their dangers - if you break one and cut yourself with a fluorescent bulb you could die. I know because my son almost died when he was a todler. Cheers, Aimee

The problem w/ Milloy is that he conservative idealogue. So you know where he's coming down in an issue.

Steven Milloy is an idiot. Not only does more mercury get released into the air from coal power plants when you use incandescents than are even IN compact fluorescent lights, he has consistently denied that mercury is dangerous. When mercory comes out of power plants, he denies that is poses a health risk, but when it comes from an energy-efficient light bulb that saves energy, you have to treat the room like a superfund site? (He also calls superfund sites a waste of money.) The "Junkman" is himself a purveyor of junk.

I didn''t react to the article the same way. My irony detector was maxed out by nearly every line. How DO you square efforts to get "dangerous" mercury thermometers out of our homes with campaigns to force us all to buy billions and billions of CFL''s? It''s up there with charging batteries with electricity from fossil-fuel-fired power plants, using more energy to recycle paper than it takes to make it from "virgin" feedstocks, and calling hydrogen a "fuel."