PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Lighting by Erik has been furnishing homes with beautiful chandeliers and lamps for decades, but a recent government mandate may have an impact on these fixtures in your home.

“Congress didn’t consider those things, not knowing much about lighting, like a lot of other things that Congress does,” Erik David said. “They pass laws and don’t know too much about it.”

But the 81-year-old knows a lot about lighting and he worries that new CFL light bulbs replacing the traditional incandescent bulbs may not be right for some common fixtures in your home.

David says companies are already designing fixtures to accommodate the new light bulbs.

“Physically, they look bad,” he said. “Second of all, they don’t give you the bright light that an incandescent gave you. Plus they have mercury inside of them, which if you break a bulb you have to fumigate the room.”

KDKA’s Jon Delano and David examined some of the new CFL light bulbs more closely, which he says contains a gas like fluorescent tubes.

“They normally don’t break, but if you have an accident or a child carries a bulb and breaks it, there is a danger – there is a chemical ingredient that’s not healthy,” he said.

But while the government insists they’re safe, new bulbs may require new fixtures to take or even hide the light bulbs.

“They’re ugly,” David said with a laugh.

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