{"id":38417,"date":"2009-05-05T17:10:16","date_gmt":"2009-05-06T00:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=38417"},"modified":"2009-05-05T17:10:16","modified_gmt":"2009-05-06T00:10:16","slug":"green-lightbulbs-poison-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2009\/05\/green-lightbulbs-poison-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Green’ Lightbulbs Poison Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"

As governments and environmental advocates are increasingly encouraging citizens to use compact fluorescent lightbulbs to decrease the emission of carbon dioxide, a toll is being paid by Chinese workers who produce the mercury-filled bulbs. From The Times<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\nLarge 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As governments and environmental advocates are increasingly encouraging citizens to use compact fluorescent lightbulbs to decrease the emission of carbon dioxide, a toll is being paid by Chinese workers who produce the mercury-filled bulbs. From The Times: Large numbers of Chinese workers have been poisoned by mercury, which forms part of the compact fluorescent lightbulbs. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[116,132,6],"tags":[2783,6920],"class_list":["post-38417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world","category-environmental-crisis","category-sci-tech","tag-mercury","tag-worker-safety","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n'Green' Lightbulbs Poison Workers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2009\/05\/green-lightbulbs-poison-workers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"'Green' Lightbulbs Poison Workers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As governments and environmental advocates are increasingly encouraging citizens to use compact fluorescent lightbulbs to decrease the emission of carbon dioxide, a toll is being paid by Chinese workers who produce the mercury-filled bulbs. 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