It was my roommate’s mother who first got us nervous.I had just gotten back from a great shopping trip; purchases in hand, I marched up to my third-floor dorm room, anxious to show my roommates my new possessions. Among them: a tall, sleek torchiere halogen lamp (a great deal for only $18.95).’This’ll look great!’ I told my roommate Deidre. We agreed that the lamp would do wonders to lighten up our dark and dingy dorm room. We assembled the lamp in minutes, plugged it in and spent the rest of the evening basking in its bright, warm light. The lamp’s effect on the place was unbelievable. It’s energetic glow made things much more comfortable. More importantly, we could finally see the inside of our room.Less than a week later, the honeymoon with our halogen lamp was over. Deidre’s mom called and told us she’d heard horror stories about the lamps. They were purportedly fire hazards.’Be very careful with that thing,’ we were admonished. Not worried by the tales of lamps overheating, exploding or catching on fire, we assured her that everything was fine.Deidre’s mom, however seemed unconvinced we were taking the proper safety measures with our new light fixture. A few days later, we were given some carefully clipped Columbus Dispatch articles to read. And that was when the worries started.’OFFICIALS SAY LAMP SET OFF FIRE’ and ‘DANGERS WITH POPULAR HALOGEN LAMPS,’ read the headlines. Apparently, the bulbs of halogen lamps can reach an astounding 1,000 degrees–temperatures that can touch off fires if the bulb comes into contact with anything flammable. There have been stories of lamps tipping over and catching sofas on fire, drapes (blown by the wind) brushing against lamp bulbs and igniting or bulbs simply exploding due to overheating. Some colleges and universities (including Brown University in Providence, RI) have banned the lamps from dorm rooms completely for fear of disaster.Soon our entire 13 story building began looking like a fire hazard. When walking home at night, I would look up to see the omnipresent lamps glowing in just about every window. I told a few people what I had learned and was unnerved to discover that many people had already had near disasters with the lamps. One woman threw away her lamp after an unsuspecting ladybug flew onto the bulb and was instantly ignited. Another told of a collection of dust on the top of her lamp that one day began smoking.Nothing scary has yet happened with our lamp, but caution is obviously a must. My roommates and I still use our lamp, but are sure to turn it off whenever we leave the room. We also check for dust bunnies and ladybugs regularly.
Jenny Spencer is a freshman majoring in political science
