WHEN British consumers are compelled to buy energy-efficient lightbulbs
from 2012, they will save up to 5m tons of carbon dioxide a year
from being pumped into the atmosphere. In China, however, a heavy
environmental price is being paid for the production of “green”
lightbulbs in cost-cutting factories.
Large numbers of Chinese workers
have been poisoned by mercury, which forms part of the compact fluorescent
lightbulbs. A surge in foreign demand, set off by a European Union
directive making these bulbs compulsory within three years, has also
led to the reopening of mercury mines that have ruined the environment.
Doctors, regulators, lawyers and courts in China - which supplies
two thirds of the compact fluorescent bulbs sold in Britain - are
increasingly alert to the potential impacts on public health of
an industry that promotes itself as a friend of the earth but depends
on highly toxic mercury.
Making the bulbs requires workers
to handle mercury in either solid or liquid form because a small amount
of the metal is put into each bulb to start the chemical reaction
that creates light…
