Humans are terrible at risk assessment

[elfs]

After the big worry yesterday over compact fluorescent bulbs, I've had myself spanked again. It turns out the story was being flogged by Steve Milloy, a well-known (at least, in the science media community) junk science advocate who also has served up some of the weirdest "there is no such thing as global warming" literature ever seen.

As PZ Meyers points out, the total environmental mercury impact from a single CFC bulb is less than that of an incadescent bulb. A CFC has 4 milligrams of mercury and uses enough electricity in its lifetime that, if your power is coal-fired (and almost all of the East Coast is coal-fired), it will generate another 2.4 milligrams. An incandescent uses enough eletricity to produce about 10 milligrams, or 3.6 milligrams more.

As it turns out, the original article goes to great lengths to emphasize that the risk of mercury poisoning from CFCs is very minimal, that there are things you can do in your own home to minimize the risk, and yes, you can dispose of the bulbs properly.

On the other hand, the human brain will turn this over and argue that you know where four grams of mercury is, in your light socket, whereas the ten grams are "just in the atmosphere, somewhere over there," and they're not about to poison you. Well, neither is the mercury in your lightbulb.

[Edited: I originally had 'grams'; it's 'milligrams of mercury'. Thanks to blaisepascal for pointing out the typo.]

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

i still see the greatest problem being disposal. most packaging implies you should "dispose of properly" but most people don't know what that means. furthermore, some people don't have access to a hazardous waste drop off facility. we have to keep ours for a year since the county offers one day for collection. then we have to wait in a ridiculously long line of cars at the facility (cause all those cars idling for over an hour is great for the environment.) i figure it's like batteries. aside from my uu church collecting them, i don't know anyone who disposes of their batteries correctly, they all chuck 'em in the trash. so if we assume people have been disposing of their new compact fluorescents in the same way...

i dunno about the newer plastic coated bulbs, but we broke what seemed like a billion of the original glass spiral bulbs when we first started to convert. (talking to other moms i found out that my kids weren't the only ones prone to knocking over lamps and break many a cfc bulb. they were just so freaking fragile!) sadly we would have to multiply that 4 gram content significantly to realize the amount that has been spilled in this household.

[solarbird]

i don't know anyone who disposes of their batteries correctly, they all chuck 'em in the trash
Hiya! Now you do. ^_^

(The town we live in has quarterly strange-object recycle days, and they take things like batteries. So we store 'em in a bin and haul them down every three to six months or so.)

[intrepid-reason.livejournal.com]

Actually most city/county/state facilities are required to have hazardous waste disposal, I don't see why it should be a problem to have a collection site there. Just my 7 cents.