On 1/27/2011 8:50 PM Jeff Liebermann spake thus:

As usual, much of what we know about mercury is alarmist and wrong:
http://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/promotions/change_light/downloads/Fact_Sheet_Mercury.pdf
"Therefore, if all 272 million CFLs3 sold in 2009 were sent
to a landfill (versus recycled, as a worst case) – they
would add 0.12 metric tons, or 0.12 percent, to U.S. mercury
emissions caused by humans."

That's interesting. Of course, it tells us *nothing* about how alarmist
and wrong what we "know" about mercury is; all it tells us is that the
amount of mercury in CFLs is much smaller than the total amount of
mercury let loose by human beans. Says nothing about mercury's toxicity.

(I guess I have an average mercury "body burden" since I have amalgam
fillings. But I still can't for the life of me figure out just how it's
OK to walk around with mercury in my TEETH just because it's been mixed
with other metals. It's not even an *alloy*, for chrissakes. How does
that work?)


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Comment on quaint Usenet customs, from Usenet:

To me, the *plonk...* reminds me of the old man at the public hearing
who stands to make his point, then removes his hearing aid as a sign
that he is not going to hear any rebuttals.