Sunday 6 March 2011

Another Dustbin Crisis Hits The UK,

councils across the UK are refusing to pick up low-energy light bulbs from homes, previously, the public disposed of traditional light bulbs, used in Britain for 120 years, in a domestic bin, but in 2007 Tony Blair agreed at a meeting of the 27 prime ministers of the European Union to adopt Commission Regulation (EC) No 244/2009, what he outlawed was the manufacture and import of incandescent bulbs, so here is the problem, the new bulbs when broken contain toxic mercury, which gives off poisonous vapours, a study by Germany’s Federal Environment Agency found that when one of them breaks, it emits levels of toxic vapour up to 20 times higher than the safe guideline limit for an indoor area, last night UNISON, the union which represents thousands of rubbish collectors across Britain, said it was concerned at the risks binmen are facing,

people are also advised to wear protective gloves while wiping the area of the break with a damp cloth and picking up fragments of glass – which should be placed in a plastic bag and sealed, the advice then states the light bulb should be taken to a council dump and placed in a special recycling bank because councils do not collect hazardous waste, that should get the greenies and tree huggers in a tizz, every time a bulb blows jump in the car and drive to the council dump to hand it in, but I digress, the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs confirmed many councils will not collect the bulbs, a spokesman said last night, in a complete reversal of it's own advice, ‘If a low-energy light bulb breaks, the mercury contained in it does not pose a health risk to anyone exposed,’ the thing I do not understand is why a prime minister would sign a piece of paper putting so many people at risk to so dangerous a product that binmen will not go near it? as I mentioned before Joseph Wilson Swan must be turning in his grave!

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