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Being energy efficient is something that you no doubt have heard about. The new “going green” movement has been getting larger by the day. Naturally, products like these new energy efficient bulbs are being pushed more and more as just one more thing we can do to protect the environment. The problem is that these “environmentally friendly” products have one of the worse heavy metals on the planet in them. Every one of these light bulbs has 3 – 5mg of mercury, enough to declare your broken blub site a hazard zone by the EPA.
The biggest problem I have is the fact that nobody seems to know about this, and the people that do don’t think it is a big deal. While nobody knows, nobody is being educated about mercury toxicity, mercury disposal or mercury cleanup in the event of a spill. Did you know that mercury is toxic before reading this? I hope this to be the case, but I know some people out there probably don’t even know this. Thankfully for yourself you now know if you didn’t before.
If you break a bulb, vacate the room after ventilating it. The EPA site will tell you to use a vacuum… DO NOT use a vacuum cleaner because you will pull the mercury into the vacuum which will never come out, and you will throw mercury into the air. A vacuum cleaner filter WILL NOT filter mercury particles or fumes. You will have to resort to a cloth, soap, sponge, anything to try to clean it but it will never fully happen. Your carpet will have mercury in it for years and you will basically need to buy new carpet. If you don’t get new carpet then you set yourself up for “long term exposure” to mercury, which can be detrimental to your health. The biggest problem is that people are simply going to throw these out when they pop. This is going to put mercury into the landfills, then the ground and finally the water. Water goes EVERYWHERE so eventually it will contribute to the concentration of mercury on the entire planet.
If you are going to use them, I would suggest being very cautious on how you handle them as to not break them. I would only put them in fixtures that have covers, so that if in the event of a breakage at least it is all within the piece that fits over the blub. Covering it also gives it shielding from flying objects, or the occasional end of something swinging up there by accident. Also now that you are aware of the facts, dispose of them properly! You cannot throw them in the trash. They must be taken to a place that can handle mercury.