lights up

I was watching the local current affairs show the other day and they were doing a feature on CFL lights or the energy efficient bulbs that most of us buy nowadays. The feature showed that there might be a health risk (though it has been strongly denied by industry and health officials) as it gives off dangerous amounts of radiation that can cause skin disorders and medical conditions. Also a concern is the mercury vapour the bulb has, when a bulb breaks the white vapour mist can come out and potentially cause dangerous levels of mercury in the surrounding environment.  Some have even gone to stocking up on the old incandescent bulbs (it is being phased out by November 2009). One suggested that it will be better if you change  to led lights. Health vs environment, how do we balance it?

Filed under m cache | Tags: bulb, health, lights | Comment (0)

more health stuff

One of the few things that we’ve been reconsidering recently is our health plans. Being only on a temporary resident visa here, we’re not eligible for medicare and thus have high premiums for private health plans. We didn’t have time to research different plans from different companies and just relied on what Ichi’s company enrolled us in. We’re now trying to see if that coverage is enough or if there is a need to switch providers.

Filed under m cache | Tags: health | Comment (0)