To the Editor:
British Columbia and the rest of Canada are being set up for the biggest environmental disaster in history by our dictatorial federal government, which bends and bows to the multi-corporate Magnum Companies by not allowing the sale of incandescent light bulbs or not allowing them to be stocked on store shelves.
We are being forced to purchase and use the spiral-shaped so-called energy saver (which is a myth in itself) that has mercury in it, which is one of the most toxic poisons on the market. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same multi-corporate owns a chain of funeral homes and casket manufacturing plants.
What the hell is the matter with our federal MPs, provincial MLAs and town councils who we are paying to protect us? What is wrong with the other so-called intelligent pillars of society, such as the environmentalists, like the Sierra Club, the Green Party, Earth Care Society or David Suzuki? I haven’t heard a public opinion comment or cry from any of the opposition parties or forthcoming candidates on this disaster that is already in the making. It’s hard to fathom how arrogant and irresponsible our political leaders are to condone the sale of such dangerous goods to the consumer at our local stores.
Your home, your health, the soil and water table are all at stake here. If a farmhouse burns to the ground with a dozen or so of these mercury lights in it, the ground is contaminated and forgotten as the insurance company replaces it. Meanwhile, the mercury seeps into the water table, and eventually into the farmers’ water well, affecting the farmer and livestock.
There is no professional recycling system set up for the mercury lights. Even if there was, they would still make their way to the landfills or to our local forests, where the jerks dump their garbage with their old fridges and stoves. Thus, the ground and water table is contaminated, along with springs, streams and wild game, fish and ducks, and every other mammal that our ecosystem depends on.
If one of these lights got broken in your home by a lamp knocked over, you would have to immediately shut off your furnace or wood stove, the air conditioner, open all the doors and windows, put on gloves and a mask and clean up the mess, or phone 911 for the toxic emergency team in your area. When these lights are in use, there is a minimal amount of mercury content in the radiation present in the electrofield within your home.
There have been a few cases so far that people have been affected with a sickness called LOMA, and when 911 was called and the paramedics arrived, they couldn’t diagnose the situation. It won’t be long before these lights will be in all your places of employment, schools and hospitals. Won’t that be fun! In a few months’ time, we can forget our worries and concerns for AIDS, breast cancer, prostate cancer leukemia or getting the clap because this asinine human-manufactured mercury problem is going to top them all. The contamination is irreversible. It’s permanent!
We have three levels of government asleep at the switch here. It’s time for us to get on the phone to all three levels or pick up a pen and write or email and get this legislation in Ottawa retracted. If you leave it up to your neighbour or someone else to protest, then you, too, are part of the problem. We have to get this product banned from our province — now! The spiral mercury light is far too dangerous to be handled by the common public. Our environment and Medicare is at risk.
Michael Bunn
Creston