The Harmful effects of LEDs and CFLs in India and in World in general. Why most people are unaware of the dangers!

 It was around 2009 and I was working as a software engineer at Hewlette Packard in Bangalore, India. Around that time, I was very active working as a CSR coordinator for HP and also got myself involved in many social development and awareness activities. During this time that, LED bulbs were getting a major push from Government agencies, Even environmental groups like Greenpeace apart from their respective manufactures. Their moto was, embrace LEDs and CFLs to fight the low voltage, less availability of electricity at the time in India. I know the issue of efficient power distribution is still an issue in India especially in its rural areas.

But, on researching in the Net, I could see a lot of potential environmental issues from CFLs(very widely used in India still) and upcoming LEDs. Though LEDs were much less worse than CFLs, the environmental contamination from mass use is still an issue. Apart from the retinal changes and skin cancer possibilities from long term exposure to LED and CFL lights, the more environmentally damaging issue is the leakage of heavy elements such as Mercury, Argon etc, when they reach their useful life, get thrown into nearby fields and ultimately reach the local drinking water sources. They may be very harmful to newborn children(autism) and in general to any living being.

The poor old filament bulb did not contain any of these harmful chemicals, just a filament in an inert gas. There was no pollution to the environment and most were manufactured in cottage industries across India. Thousands were jobless when they got banned. Their only issue was they were not energy  efficient. But, when we compare the ill effects of LEDs and CFLs, were their banning was a right step in India?

During 2009 to  2010 period, I wrote many emails to environmental ministry against banning the filament bulbs. My argument was the job losses in india(most were manufactured in low tech cottage industries) and the environment pollution problems. I was getting regular response from the ministry contact personals in the beginning, but when I tried to confront them with facts, I found I am getting no more replies.

I was shocked to realize, even Greenpeace was promoting LEDs and my mails to them regarding environmental pollution fell on deaf ears.

In the light of the above, do we need our good old filament bulbs make a comeback? May be in a better efficient forms? Was their banning a wrong step?