How are incandescent lightbulbs bad for the ozone layer?

Question

I always thought that electricity had no direct impact on pollution. I know that a lot of power plants run on fossil fuel, which is detrimental, but is there something that I'm not aware of relating to light bulbs?

Answer 1

Yes, they cause light pollution, needlessly making the sky glow.

I don't know why it's so hard - On my brightly streetlighted street, almost all the buildings have entry lights at the door. What are you blind? If you can't find the lock in those conditions you need to get your eyes checked.

Note: this is wall-to-wall buildings, not the 1-acre-per-lot suburbs.


The same goes for lights in the alleyways (so people can find the garbage cans a few minutes each night, believe me, you can see everything from skyglow alone), and storefronts that have lights on after they close.


While fluorescent lights use less energy, they have mercury in them and make UV radiation and they look like crap. The color is terrible. You cannot beat a nice blackbody radiator.


If you want to save energy replace bulbs with 40 or 60 watt ones, really, it's not that dim, and place motion sensors on hardly used outdoor lights.
Don't em when you don't need them.
My dad leaves the lights on in the daytime, and it barely makes the room 10% brighter.

Answer 2

The campaign you are refering to is misquoted. Incandescent bulbs are extremely inefficient at producing light, thus requiring more coal -burning power plants to produce electricity. This has a detrimental effect on the environment, not the ozone. What the ads are trying to say is incandescent bulbs are hurting the environment. What is little known is the mercury found in fluorescent bulbs is also toxic to the environment. Throwing away compact fluorescent (CF) lightbulbs/tubes are detrimental even more. Recycle burned out incandescent bulbs with glass recycling, CF bulbs/tubes need to go to a hazardous waste facility to extract the mercury phosphor. Every major county in the US has a central facility.

Answer 3

They are not bad for the ozone layer. You have your facts mixed up. Fluorescent lights use less electricity, so using them helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, but that is TOTALLY DIFFERENT from the ozone depletion problem caused by leaking Freon from air conditioners and refrigerators.

Answer 4

They require more electricity. Most of the electricity we use is made from fossil fuels which contaminate the atmosphere with carbon dioxide and other pollutants. Florescent lighting is more efficient.

Answer 5

The ozone layer is created when the solar winds collide with the earth's magnetic field. This is so high that man doesn't affect it.