With the anticipated massive rollout of compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) in Filipino households, players in the emerging industry of energy efficient solutions have been urging government to finally set in place firm regulation on the allowable content as well as disposal of hazardous substances.

One of the toxic substances being raised against CFL would be its mercury content which may pose health risks, especially if bulbs are shattered in enclosed areas.

There have also been concerns on the disposal of used CFLs as well as the incandescent bulbs that have been removed in the lighting conversion processes done in homes and establishments.

Rico A. Gonzales, chief executive officer of Philips Electronics and Lighting Inc., noted in an exclusive interview, it is about time for the Philippines to follow the global standard in the mercury content for CFLs, and cast a policy on waste disposal of hazardous substances to make risk management more manageable. “One opportunity that we shall be doing is to really push the standard on the regulation of hazardous substances (ROHS),” he said.

Gonzales pointed out the global standard on mercury content on CFLs is at 40 microgram (mg) which is still considerably negligible. Without a firm policy sanctioned by government, or the Department of Energy (DoE) for that matter though, some technology providers can push that up to 50mg.

He stressed that for the next rollout of CFLs which may run up to 8.0 million, a black and white ROHS policy will be very important given calculated environmental impact of the planned distribution of the lighting products.

Gonzales added the ROHS shall be aligned with the global program that calls on how to standardize managing wastes on energy, electrical and electronic products.

“We are now trying to put together our proposal as a recommendation to the government, through the DoE, based on how Europe did it successfully,” the Philips executive added.

The energy department also laid down earlier plans of crafting a policy on the disposal of used or broken CFLs so health and other externalized risks on people and the environment can be prevented or mitigated.