Broken CFL light bulbs, how dangerous?

[mike777]

"What if I accidentally break a fluorescent bulb in my home?

 

The most important thing to remember is to never use a vacuum . A standard vacuum will spread mercury containing dust throughout the area as well as potentially contaminating the vacuum. What you should do is:

 

Keep people and pets away from the breakage area so that the mercury in the powder inside the bulb is not accidentally tracked into other areas.

Ventilate the area by opening windows.

Wear appropriate personal protective equipment, such as rubber gloves, safety glasses, old clothing or coveralls, and a dust mask (if you have one) to keep bulb dust and glass from being inhaled.

Carefully remove the larger pieces and place them in a secure closed container, preferably a glass container with a metal screw top and gasket seal like a canning jar.

Next, begin collecting the smaller pieces and dust. You can use a disposable broom and dustpan or two stiff pieces of paper to scoop up pieces.

Put all material into the glass container. Pat the area with the sticky side of duct, packing or masking tape. Wipe the area with a damp cloth or paper towels to pick up fine particles.

Put all waste and materials used to clean up the bulb in the glass container and label it “Universal Waste - broken lamp”.

Take the container for recycling as universal waste. To determine where your town has made arrangements for recycling of this type of waste, call your town office or check out the Maine Department of Environmental Protection website at http://www.maine.gov/dep/rwm/hazardouswast...cipalmaster.xls

The next time you replace a bulb, consider putting a drop cloth on the floor so that any accidental breakage can be easily cleaned up."

 

 

http://www.maine.gov/dep/rwm/homeowner/fluorescent.htm

 

There seems to be some confusion on just how dangerous these CFL broken bulbs may be.

 

 

The main advice seems to be DO NOT Vacuum the bulb debris.

It seems the 2000$ clean up stories are a bit too much but they do seem to be dangerous and care needs to be taken.

[jtfanclub]

God, I hate the pansy-assed pablum that the EPA puts out. There's more mercury in my freakin' fillings than there is in a CFL lightbulb.

 

The instructions should read...(edited)

1. Air out the room.

2. Pick up the broken glass the same way you would any other broken light bulb (eg., do not pick up with bare hands, do not store pieces in mouth, etc.)

3. Dispose of where you normally dispose of fluorescent bulbs. They should not be put into normal trash, because you don't want them to get incinerated.

 

Unless you have a dozen of them break at once, that should do it. There's a hundred times the mercury in a mercury thermometer than there is in a cfl light bulb. There's no need to treat them the same way.

[goobers]

2.  Pick up the broken glass the same way you would any other broken light bulb (eg., do not pick up with bare hands, do not store pieces in mouth, etc.)

:(

[Winstonm]

"What if I accidentally break a fluorescent bulb in my home?

 

Well, if no one is around when it happens it will sound strangely similar to a tree falling in the forest.

[gwnn]

I'd much rather die of mercury poisoning if there is 1% chance that I threw out 2000$ on the window.

[helene_t]

Agree with Matthew. Those security alerts are like crying wolf.

[jtfanclub]

2.  Pick up the broken glass the same way you would any other broken light bulb (eg., do not pick up with bare hands, do not store pieces in mouth, etc.)

:)

As far as I know, the only known case of mercury poisoning from CFLs (not including manufacture or mass disposal) involved breaking a box of them in a poorly ventilated toddler's play area. Eventually, one of the toddlers got mercury poisoning.

 

So I should have said 'do not let your kids put pieces of the bulb in their mouth', but this sounded better. :)