light bulbs and things that'll kill you

I generally don't come out for political debates, but because of global warming, people are talking about banning incandescent light bulbs and making us all use compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs). I have two problems with this proposal:

1. CFLs contain upwards of 5 mg of mercury each, and it gets released if you break the bulb. We EIs really dislike the concept of being one klutzy action from mercury poisoning, which a bunch of us suffer from already.
2. The guy who lives down the road from me got one of these bulbs because everybody thinks they're so wonderful, but because his wife has electromagnetic field sensitivities (ES), he checked it, and he measured 100 milligauss (mG) near, not even at, this bulb. For comparison, I found this page where some engineers measured the magnetic field in townhouses built near two sets of power lines at 8 to 12 mG. If people worry about 8 mG, you could not pay me to fill my house up with >100 mG light bulbs, and I don't even suffer from ES.

So in terms of ES, I'm a normie. I'm right where the majority of the population is relative to chemical sensitivities: clueless except for what people tell me. And you know what? I'm typing with my laptop right on my lap. I've been known to sleep within three feet of a powered-up air cleaner. I've stood near the microwave when my husband puts water in there, so I get that whole thing about people using synthetic chemicals because they're handy and they don't actually hurt anyone in the immediate vicinity. The thing is that you never know if or when that could change, and for some of us it already has, so requiring everybody to use CFLs is going to leave some people in the dark.

Ok, that was kind of serious, so here are some fantastic headlines:

• The deodorant safety guide: How picking the right brand could save your life
• No demons in milk, insists farmers' group