Originally Posted by
waytoomanybikes
While I applaud the CFL for using less electricity and costing less to operate, I am MUCH less thrilled about the fact that every one of them that I put in my house is another little pool of Mercury.
I believe the research is that the amount of mercury used in a CFL is less than the mercury emitted when burning coal to supply electricity for an incandescent bulb. Plus, over time, they're going to get rid of the mercury. You can mitigate the mercury in the CFL bulb by properly recycling them.