Ted Poe: “It's turn out the lights; the party is almost over for the incandescent lightbulb. Four years ago, a law went into place…”

“It's turn out the lights; the party is almost over for the incandescent lightbulb. Four years ago, a law went into place which mandated that every lightbulb across America must be 25 percent more efficient by 2014. What this meant was that the incandescent lightbulb, Thomas Edison's greatest invention, is being banned and Americans will be forced to buy the government-selected replacement, the compact fluorescent lightbulb. There are health risk problems with the compact fluorescent lightbulb, or the CFL as it's called. The National Institutes of Health states that fluorescent bulbs contain mercury. Now, isn't that lovely? Further, another Federal agency, the EPA, warns that the broken bulb contains mercury and will ``continue to release mercury vapor until it is cleaned up and removed from the room.'' Mr. Speaker, I thought we were trying to get rid of mercury in our products in this country. So, in case we happen to break one of these new glass fragile lightbulbs--and I have one here and I'll be very careful not to drop it on the House floor because if I do, we'll have to evacuate the House floor. Here's what the EPA says and advises we're to do to clean up the poisonous debris in this lightbulb. I am reading from the EPA's verbatim Web site: Have people and pets leave the room. Air out the room for 5 to 10 minutes by opening a window or a door to the outdoors. Now, how you do that in a high-rise, Mr. Speaker?…”