I am not referring to Cree’s recent offering on YouTube but the news that Osram are closing their incandescent lamp factory in Tangerang, Indonesia. Apart from devastating a community by removing 1,100 jobs from a less than vibrant economy this factory has continued to provide incandescent lamps for the countries that have not so far joined in on the banning craze. This is now bringing to an end any reason to continue to campaign on this issue. The industry are achieving their aims of removing a good, simple, practical and safe product that is cheap to produce and cheap to sell with a variety of expensive, complex and more polluting things.
I have not discussed the second part of the European ban affecting reflector lamps for a while. This is now law and takes effect in September 2013. The strange thing is we still do not know what will be made unavailable, the lamp industry is absolutely silent on what they will continue to provide apart from the higher price eco lamps. Neither have they seen fit to publish the data necessary that will allow us consultants and consumers to understand what should still be available. As previously discussed the basis for the ban is illogical and probably even less considered than the incandescent lamp ban. I really do not know where we go from here.
Kevan Shaw 30 May 2013
