Welcome to the Orwellian nightmare- WALLMART is going to be deciding a LOT of things in your future- including that it is OK to poison our kids in Santa Clara for their idea of ecological security.

The story broke Jan 3d, 2007, when news folks announced that since WALLMART has enough buying clout and sells so much, they can decide to highlight (push) for only flourescent bulbs to be sold in their stores....

Considering how many bulbs WALLEYE sells, they can force the big lighting manufacturers out of the incandescent market.
Goodie--- dumb people hear that flourescent lights are cheaper, better for the environment since they last longer, and use less energy to run and just assume that everything is hunky dory.

WRONG O Batman. As you have read elsewhere on this blog and others, there is a nationwide disaster with our kids called AUTISIM, and it is peripherally linked to mercury-- and guess what is in those lovely flourescent bulbs???

This site spells it out best
:http://nemesis.lonestar.org/reference/electricity/fluorescent/safety.html

"Mercury Safety
All fluorescent lamps contain a small amount of elemental mercury (Hg), also known as quicksilver. When lamps are cold, some of the mercury in the lamp is in liquid form, but while the lamp is operating, or when the lamp is hot, most of the mercury is in a gaseous or vapor form.
Mercury vapor is a highly toxic substance, with an "extreme" rating as a poison. Even in liquid form, contact with mercury is considered life-threatening or a "severe" risk to health. Mercury can cause severe respiratory tract damage, brain damage, kidney damage, central nervous system damage, and many other serious medical conditions even for extremely small doses.

Many years ago, hat makers used mercury to tan the animal pelts used in hats, and the exposure to mercury gradually caused mental and nervous disorders, frequently mistaken for insanity. This mercury exposure is precisely what created the old saying "Mad as a hatter".

Although the amount of mercury in each fluorescent lamp is small, it is always important to avoid breaking fluorescent lamps, and that the unbroken lamps be delivered to a hazardous waste handler. Never EVER place fluorescent lamps in trash compactors or incinerators, since this will release the mercury and contaminate the surrounding area. Liquid mercury will not burn, but instead becomes a vapor when heated. It eventually cools and condenses back to a liquid form, spreading the contamination to larger areas.

Businesses, schools and other large commercial facilities that replace hundreds or thousands of fluorescent lamps each year are particularly at risk of creating areas of significant mercury contamination due to improper handling of lamps.

If not properly disposed, mercury can contaminate buildings, landfills, lakes, animals, fish, birds, humans, crops and rivers. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency finally ordered waste handlers to treat fluorescent lamps as hazardous waste. With such a classification, fluorescent lamps are not to be sent to landfills, but instead are to be sent to recycling centers that break the lamps under special conditions and safely recover the mercury.

Depending on the level of compliance with the EPA rules in your area, this recovery may or may not be done. Where I live, trash collectors typically throw fluorescent lamps into the general trash truck, which compacts them, contaminating the trucks, the landfill and the areas where the trucks operate."

They then go on to say" In recent years, the EPA also ordered fluorescent lamp makers to reduce the amount of mercury in each lamp. For some makers, this wasn't a problem since they were putting more mercury in each lamp than was needed, or the manufacturer was able to switch to more sensitive phosphors that needed less ultraviolet light to produce the same amount of visible light. Other makers mixed other compounds with the mercury that supposedly compensate for the lower amount of mercury. However, some organizations have reported that some of these compounds are actually there only to deceive EPA instruments that are trying to measure how much mercury is present and that these other compounds do nothing else.
Because mercury will be released if a fluorescent lamp is broken, it is important to install fixtures in areas where the lamps are not likely to be broken. Fixtures in areas close to the ground or in areas with moving equipment should use metal or plastic shields to protect the lamp from being broken. "

So-What can YOU do?
Write WallMart and tell them to stop being so stupid and short sighted. Clear your home of flourescents and protect your family. Keep your eye on the big picture and make sure that your mercury levels are within what YOU know is safe, rather than what some retail giant tells you is safe.
Don't shop at WALLMART, or any nationwide retailer and give them the kind of power to dictate what products will or won't be sold in America. Keep our retail options open by spending money at different places and making sure that a compettitive marketplace ensures no one gets to monopolize retail sales and manipulate what is available.

Protect your kids.