Personally, the first thought for me was to get out of the city, and after much prayer and life changing circumstances, I am out of the big city, its more like a spread out population here, but still small town. I love it.. Thats the first part of getting healthy -> Lifestyle change, roll that in with adjustments to diet, education, God given Wisdom, and patience.
God Bless,
-Will

One caveat of the low-energy bulb is that it contains mercury. Even so, CFLs are still your best bet, according to EPA Energy Star program director Wendy Reed. Coal-fired plants are the biggest emitters of mercury. Using CFL bulbs means you draw less power from the grid, which means less coal is burned for electricity. Because of the mercury, take precautions when disposing of these CFL bulbs. Rather than throwing them in your household trash or curbside recycling bin, take them to a hazardous waste collection or other special facility.

Those quotes really irritate me. The whole idea of CFLs is to reduce the supposed greenhouse gas. If we are to be moving to less carbon emitting things, then what relation of coal-fired plants have to do with justifying intentionally spreading toxic substances throughout the whole nation? For how can it be justified if coal-fired plants no longer exist?

Makes one wonder if there's a conspiracy for those with a problem of disposal of mercury to inject it in our bodies, put it in our homes. Otherwise, why a contorted logic statement such as that?

And, I hear the mercury is not enough to worry about, but you should still always go to extra effort and use energy to transport it to a special facility. Something doesn't make sense here.

They never speak about how much is actually saved in comparison to other things. For instance, one idea comes to mind is using an old-fashioned land line versus a cellphone with it's manufacture, batteries, charger, and its recharging. Then there's setting your thermostat a degree (or more) different. Or how about eliminating your TV. There's a whole list of things that would save much more energy than light bulbs.

In February 1998, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a report citing mercury emissions from electric utilities as the largest remaining anthropogenic source of mercury released to the air. EPA officials estimated that about 50 tons of elemental mercury are emitted each year from U.S. coal-burning powerplants, with lesser amounts coming from oil- and gas-burning units. According to EPA estimates, emissions from coal-fired utilities account for 13 to 26 percent of the total (natural plus anthropogenic) airborne emissions of mercury in the United States.

Yes, but the alternative is not much better. Composite resins use Bisphenol A. This leaves us with few options.

I would agree with that, Rosangela. I didn't make it clear in my earlier post, but I probably wouldn't think of using ice unless the cold water had failed to bring the fever to a safe level, and the fever were going above 106. Hospitals might also be using ice by this point, in addition to drugs. However, it appears that the conventional wisdom may be shifting on this. I just read some very nice points regarding fever, apparently posts by medical folk, here:

http://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/packing-child-ice-285582.html

On another note, for those who suffer with asthma, I have learned that when a child is suffering enough from an asthma attack as to be breathing retractively (quick, shallow breaths more like gasps, which are getting insufficient air), a sudden, "cruel" dip in cold/ice water can clear up the asthma and, at least for a time, open up the airways. The child, of course, will cry to be treated this way, but it's a good thing to keep in mind in the absence of more "comfortable" treatments (e.g. inhalers). The drugs in the inhalers have some distinct side effects which few people bother to focus on because, of course, the alternative to using them during a severe attack can be much worse.

Off-topic, but interesting: Here in Taiwan, they say that 90% of asthmatic children are allergic to dust mites. Stores here will sell things like mite-free pillowcases and bedding, etc. to help reduce the mite problem. I never remember hearing much about dust mites before coming to Taiwan. In America, we usually think of pollen and peanuts.

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

So, using a mercury-containing bulb to reduce electric consumption may not be a bad idea after all--just don't break the bulb!

But what happens when all the coal plants are no longer?