Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair.
I suppose Mr. Dewar actually addressed one of the issues I was going to raise, and which I will still raise, about the mercury levels in these bulbs.
As a matter of fact, a couple of days after a news report of Mr. Dewar's private member's bill asking that these bulbs be prohibited, a constituent by the name of Robert Rice wrote to me about the disposal problem. He said:
Many of these bulbs contain small levels of the toxic metal mercury, while each bulb by itself offers literally no harm to the users, the mass dumping of them into landfills or trash incinerators could cause detrimental environmental impact in the local environment. The safe disposal of these Compact fluorescent requires special handling, including that bulbs be unbroken and handled much like the safe disposal of alkaline batteries with special facilities to handle and recycle these bulbs.
Mr. Dewar addressed the issue, but....
You mentioned that the benefits of these bulbs in terms of mercury reduction outweigh the problems associated with disposal and the environment. Are you basing your recommendation on any particular studies?