The dangers of CFLs, and what Obama can do about it

Anybody switching their bulbs to Compact Fluorescents (CFLs)? Good for you - they're a lot more energy efficient, save you money, and help the environment (well, other than the fact that you may have buy a hazmat suit if you break one). The thing is, CFLs may pose another danger. Fire. Lamps and other light sockets in America have a neat little sticker on them telling you the largest bulb you can safely put in them (such as, "Max 60w"). The problem? That tends to be incandescent wattage, not CFL wattage. A 42w incandescent bulb is very weak. A 42w CFL bulb is incredibly strong, and gives off a LOT of heat. I have some lamps I bought from Ikea just a year or two ago. The lamps claim I can put up to a maximum of a 60w bulb in them. Well, I called 1000bulbs.com, a leader in selling light bulbs, and asked them what's the largest CFL I could put in there, SAFELY, in order to use it as a grow light for my orchids. They told me 42w. Specifically, the woman said that perhaps I could put larger, but she wasn't convinced it was safe.

Now, call me stupid, but most Americans will see "max 60w" and they'll believe "max 60w". With the entire nation being urged to switch to CFL bulbs, someone needs to step in fast and educate people as to whether or not it's safe to use the current maximum wattage stickers for new CFLS. Because from what I hear, it isn't. (Not to mention, a lot of us have lights and fixtures built a little before three years ago - so even if new technology lists what the CFL max is (and I'm not convinced it does), what about all the lights in your home that were bought and built more than a few years ago? They al have the old stickers.)

Now that I'm a homeowner - albeit one who is too upper middle class, and got too much of an education, to get any help at all from the Democrats - I'm dealing with the "maximum wattage" problem. It's a big problem if you're trying to go green.