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Berlin. Germans, who sometimes regard themselves as guardians of the environment, have hoarded energy-guzzling incandescent light bulbs ahead of the European Union-wide phased ban on their sale that began this week, a market research agency has reported.

The GfK Group found that sales of incandescent bulbs soared about 35 percent in the first half of the year ahead of the ban, even though it was proposed by German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel in 2007.

Some German retailers said they had seen sales of 100-watt incandescent bulbs soar 600 percent since the end of July.

The ban is part of a push to save energy, cut greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change. From this week, light bulbs above 75 watts can no longer be produced in or imported into the EU, although retailers are still allowed to sell existing stocks of light bulbs of higher wattages.

The ban, which also brought hoarding in other parts of Europe, will be expanded each year and by 2012 the production and importing of all incandescent bulbs will be prohibited.

The European Commission projects the ban on the energy-inefficient bulbs will save about 40 terawatt hours of energy in the EU per year — enough to meet the energy demands of a small country.

The idea to ban incandescent bulbs came from Gabriel in 2007 when Germany held the EU’s rotating presidency.

The minister said the switch to energy saving bulbs could save about 25 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.

Traditional incandescent bulbs have barely changed since they were first produced commercially by Thomas Edison in 1879 and efficiency improvements reached a limit about 50 years ago.

Incandescent bulbs will now be replaced by long-life fluorescent or halogen lamps.

But the move has had its critics. The editor in chief of a German environmental publication, Juergen Stellpflug, said energy- saving bulbs were not as efficient as claimed by manufacturers.

“Energy-saving lamps are supposed to save energy. We have found out that they save a lot less energy than claimed by the makers,” he said. “They are nowhere near as durable as claimed by the makers, especially as far as the so-called switching capacity is concerned.”

Stellpflug also warned of the toxic danger the energy-saving bulbs posed in their disposal.

“Mercury is supposed to be banned worldwide. The only exception will be made for energy- saving lamps,” he said.

“Because mercury is so dangerous, those lamps should be disposed off as hazardous waste only, but that is not really happening. More than 90 percent of energy-saving lamps are just being dumped into the regular household waste.”



Reuters