Yes it's true. Compact flourescent bulbs do contain a certain amount of mercury. Mercury is a neurotoxin which is especially harmful to children and fetuses. The people in charge have done a good job of warning us about the dangers of mercury, but, unfortunately, we've gone too far. Now, the mere mention of the word mercury makes people totally afraid of a product.

The design of a CFL bulb requires that there be some mercury present. Some bulbs contain more than others. As long as the mercury is contained in the bulb, there are no concerns. If you are exposed to a broken bulb, the amount of mercury in the bulb should not be a concern. The recent media 'alarm' about CFL mercury is related to higher concentrations that could develop in landfills if hundreds of thousands of these bulbs are disposed of improperly.

Granted, there isn't a great way to recycle these bulbs… yet. Recycling for them does exist, but it is not prevalent. The EPA is doing its part to get a CFL recycling infrastructure setup. They are urging major retailers like Wal-Mart to answer the call.

(As a side note, if Wal-Mart does setup CFL recycling, it'll be just one more reason why I love Wal-Mart).

What the media is NOT telling us is that using CFL bulbs, despite their mercury content, actually REDUCES the amount of mercury in the environment. The largest contributor of mercury to the environment is coal-burning power plants. Therefore, over the life of the bulb, an energy efficient CFL will contribute LESS mercury than a standard incandescent bulb.

If that's not enough reason to switch to CFLs, how about these:

- The EPA urges that we use CFLs.
- CFLs last 10 times longer than incandescent.
- CFLs produce 70% less heat.
- CFLs use 66% less energy than incandescent.
- One CFL will save you up to $30 over the life of the bulb.
- CFLs are being fitted to nearly all types of light fixtures, so it is likely that one exists to fit your needs.

And finally...

- If every home in a America changed just 1 light bulb to CFL, we would save the energy equivalent to lighting 2.5 million houses for one year. It would also lower emissions by an amount equivalent to 800,000 automobiles.

Those sound like pretty convincing arguments to me.