Here are excerpts from an article out of the Ellsworth American a few weeks
ago that has recently become quite the national spectacle regarding those
ever so Enivronmentally touted 'Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs'

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>On March 13, Brandy Bridges was installing some of the two dozen CFL
(compact fluorescent lamp) bulbs she had purchased in ?an attempt to save
money on her energy bill.

One month later, though, Bridges is paying much more than she had ever
expected to.

On that Tuesday, Bridges was installing one of the spiral-shaped light bulbs
in her 7-year-old daughter's bedroom. Suddenly, the bulb plummeted to the
floor, breaking on the shag carpet.

Bridges, who was wary of the dangers of cleaning up a fluorescent bulb,
called The Home Depot where she purchased them. She was told that the bulbs
had mercury in them and that she should not vacuum the area where the bulb
had broken. Bridges was directed to call the Poison Control hotline.

Poison Control directed her to the Maine Center for Disease Control and
Prevention and the Department of Environmental Protection.

Upon reaching the DEP the next day, the agency offered to send a specialist
out to Bridges' house to test the air levels. The specialist arrived soon
after the phone conversation and began testing the downstairs, where he
found safe levels of mercury - below the state's limit of 300 ng/m3
(nanograms per cubic meter).

In the daughter's bedroom, the levels remained well below the 300 mark,
except for near the carpet where the bulb broke. There the mercury levels
spiked to 1,939 ng/m3. On a bag of toys that bulb fragments had landed on,
the levels of mercury were 556 ng/m3.

Bridges was told by the specialist not to clean up the bulb and mercury
powder by herself. He recommended the Clean Harbors Environmental Services
branch in Hampden.

Clean Harbors gave Bridges a low-ball estimate of $2,000, based on what she
described, to clean up the room properly. The work entailed removing
anything with levels greater than 300 ng/m3, including the carpeting.

One month later, Bridges' daughter's bedroom remains sealed off with plastic
"to avoid any dust blowing around" and to keep the family's pets from going
in and out of the room.

Her daughter, Shayley, has to sleep downstairs in a full house that already
consists of Bridges' fiancé, her 71-year-old mother and her handicapped
brother.

Today, Bridges is "gathering finances" to pay the $2,000 for the cleaning
herself. That won't cover the cost for new carpeting and other items that
will have to be replaced. Her insurance company said it wouldn't cover the
costs because mercury is considered a pollutant, like oil.

One month later, Bridges is still searching for answers. She has contacted
staff members from the offices of U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and
Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) to tell them about her situation but has received no
response.

She has talked with representatives from the CDC and DEP and spent roughly
two to three hours a day over the past several weeks, talking on the phone
and in person and contacting local papers to get the word out on what she
believes are dangerous light bulbs.

And, she said, she is wondering why the DEP "publicly recanted the
statement" it made to an area newspaper, in which DEP officials said it was
safe to clean up the CFL bulbs using household materials.

"I'm really upset. They should not change their story just because it does
not fit into a good plan for these light bulbs," said Bridges. "I'm trying
my best to keep my family safe and the state just keeps trying to cover it
up."

>>>>

So if what they say is true, and you can really save up to $180 per year by
switching every light bulb in your house to a CFL, then it will only take
the Bridges 11 years to recoup their costs!