The toxic by-products of eco-politics - Christopher Booker - Telegraph

...A similar move will put hundreds of people out of work in the US, where incandescent bulbs are to be phased out between 2012 and 2014. Next July, General Electric (originally founded to make light bulbs) will close three plants employing 400 workers to make incandescent bulbs. GE was one of the firms lobbying for the ban (as did Philips and other bulb manufacturers in the EU), because it makes much greater profits from the more expensive "low energy" bulbs. But this will not create jobs in Europe or the US, because most of the compact fluorescent bulbs using toxic mercury vapour are made in China. There are reports of large numbers of Chinese factory workers suffering from mercury poisoning. Few things in this world are so devious and damaging as the politics of environmentalism.