Energy-saving lightbulbs can induce migraines, epilepsy and skin rashes, and are dangerous when it comes to disposal as they contain tiny amounts of mercury.

Well, that’s what the papers are saying, anyway. It’s been a bad week for the one-time darlings of the green lobby, which can save 26kg of CO₂ for every regular bulb they replace. Since the new year there has been a concerted low-level campaign against them, which could set back their progress by years.

But the truth of the matter is that modern compact fluorescent bulbs don’t flicker the way old ones did, and the amount of mercury in each one is smaller than the ball in a ballpoint pen. Over its lifetime, an energy-saving bulb emits around 2.4mg of mercury. The equivalent number of regular bulbs you’d need to use over the same amount of time would emit 10mg (source: BBC DNA)

The LondonPaper picked up on the story on Monday night and gave one of the most balanced run-throughs yet, explaining that there is no medical research to back up the health complaints, and that Epilepsy Action ’stressed that, of an average 115,000 monthly visitors to its website, only 31 people reported seizures as a result of [energy-saving bulbs]. Of those, only 16 had a seizure while, or after, looking at one’.

Indeed, to quote directly from the Epilepsy Action site:

We are not aware of any evidence that low energy light bulbs can directly trigger epileptic seizures. A leading expert in the field of photosensitive epilepsy has told us that, generally, low energy bulbs should not be a greater risk to people with photosensitive epilepsy than other light bulbs. We are currently investigating this issue.

So it’s all still a bit up in the air.

I can’t see this campaign running much beyond the end of January, by when it will have petered out and the public’s attention will be focused once more on how much they can save by switching to energy-saving bulbs.

They are incredibly versatile these days, and I’ve replaced all but two of the bulbs at home with them, including the halogens in the kitchen. You can’t tell the difference the way you could when they first came out. Neither are they so expensive as they once were; you can buy them for little more than £2 a pop these days. (Londoners can even pick up two energy-saving lightbulbs for free this weekend.)

The government remains committed to completely switching off old-style bulbs by 2011, and even if it doesn’t win another term in office this policy is unlikely to be changed by any opposition party. Unless, of course, someone can prove that the health risks are real.

I doubt they can.

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