Mercury Rising

By Jason Phelan
RINF Alternative News

Until recently, the conservatives in power in Australia have been in
complete environmental denial. Now with an election scheduled for November,
and public opinion indicating that the state of the environment is of great
concern climate change is now been declared scientific fact.

As little a few months ago the Liberal party, run by John Howard wouldn’t
even enter a debate about climate change, stating that there was no
scientific evidence to support claims ‘by alarmist left wing wacko
greenies’.

Today the conservatives released plans to enter an emission trading scheme.
This is not the first time the conservatives have used issues that is has no
interest in as a thinly veiled attempt to placate voters in spite of being
counter to current thinking.

Recently a new legislation was put into place outlawing regular incandescent
light globes in favor of ‘green’ compact fluorescent lamps. Liberal party
sites the savings in power consumption as as part of its new environmentally
responsible image.

Yet the environmental impact of fluorescent lighting has been known for
decades and during the planning of this policy the liberal party should have
released details that addressed these well known concerns. The impact?
Fluorescent lighting contains mercury an extremely toxic substance. A
substance deemed so toxic that manufactures of disposable batteries
containing trace amounts of mercury have been banned.

Safe disposal requires storing the bulbs unbroken until they can be
processed. The disposal of phosphor and particularly the mercury in the
tubes is an environmental issue. Recycling services are available in many
nations. In some areas, recycling is also available to Industry. The need
for a recycling infrastructure is an issue with instituting proposed bans of
incandescent bulbs.

What is truly odd is the fact that in many of these forward thinking areas
no one has gone so far as to ban standard light globes. In short, many
countries and states acknowledge the draw backs of fluorescent lights and
have implemented a disposal service so this mercury and other lethal
compounds don’t end up in landfill. Yet here in Australia the Liberal party
has effectively outlawed incandescent lights in favor of fluoros and has not
only failed to implement a plan to stop toxins entering the environment via
disposal but has yet to even admit there is an issue with disposal of
mercury into landfill.

To date Malcolm Turnbull, federal minister for the environment has declined
to take opportunity to comment on these concerns, despite my writing a
detailed letter outlining these concerns.

What of the future? Is the Liberal Party going to introduce a policy of
banning the current range of fluorescent lights when radio fluorescent and
cold cathode lights become viable (estimates for this stand at around 2010)?

It would appear that this is merely another example of conservative politics
trying to win over voters by giving the impression that it takes the
concerns and the intelect of voters seriously.

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