Flourescent Light Bulbs - Are they all equally potential health problems if /when they break, & equally so?

Question

The long tubes, the halo shaped, and the compact bulbs that wind around several times... how do they compare in their toxic properties?

Is one kind more dangerous to break than another kind?

If so, which are worse &/or 'safer'?

What is the recommended proceedure when one breaks?

Ditto ^ , if it has already been put out in the trash, when you find out about it?

Links to the best Web sites with such info will be appreciated, as will the sharing of expert personal knowledge.

If mercury is going to be in anything --including light bulbs-- the packaging should include BOTH a warning, and instructions on what to do if the item breaks.

I know of one lady already who had a CFB break, & swept it up, & disposed of it in the regular trash... She shortly came down with many of the symptoms of acute mercury poisoning. She'd had NO IDEA that there was mercury in the bulb, let alone that she needed to take special precautions when one breaks, or what to avoid & what to do!

Answer 1

Breaking a CFC bulb would require specialist to insure all Hg is removed from your home. This cost a family in Maine $2,000 to insure all the Hg was removed from their daughters bedroom after a bulb broke.

Either that or breath the vapors....

Some think Hg (mercury) is created by coal fired electrical plants. This cannot be true, as Hg is an element and cannot be created by anything except nature.

Answer 2

I did something pretty silly one time - I wanted to see if they would work in my fridge, which has three 40watt incandescants in it. After realizing that the cold made the CFL spiral light delay turning on, I was removing the bulb when it broke at the base. I have a wife, a 13 year old, and an infant. We're all fine. Yes, there is, like, 5 mg of mercury in the bulb, but unless you are in that infaniticimal percentage of the population that has particular problems with mercury sensitivity.

Technically, there are recycling centers in some states, and technically, you should open your windows for about 15 minutes. I did that part, in a panic to save my baby, as you might imagine.

There are no recycling centers for bulbs where I live, so I'm gonna leave that part open and let you use your imagination.

This happened about 2 months ago. Hit my blog below if you have any comments/questions.

Answer 3

The CFL's have a great potential to save energy. They also, if they replace the billions of bulbs already installed in the United States, have a great potential to release a vast quantity of mercury upon breakage.

At least if you're bulb is releasing mercury at a coal-fired power plant, they have "scrubbers" to remove it from their emissions. You have no such "scrubbers" in your home if you drop a CFL.

I'm betting that's also why the CFL's come in that "sealed" packaging - so that there's no huge cleanup bill if a crate drops on a loading dock somewhere and breaks a hundred of them.

Answer 4

Generally, the bigger they are the more mercury in them. It is somewhat variable, depending on the specific bulb. The figure I've heard is that the long bulbs have 2-10 times as much mercury as CFLs. They also are much easier to break.

If one breaks the main things are - don't vacuum the pieces, use a broom; and don't get cut on the glass.

More here:

http://www.cityofberkeley.info/sustainable/Powerplay%20articles/16Powerplay.Mercury.CFL.html
http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/cfl.asp
http://www.gelighting.com/na/business_lighting/faqs/cfl.htm

Answer 5

4' tubes have about 8mg of mercury
CFL's (Spiral shaped) have about 4mg's

Here's probably more info then you want but you asked so....

As CFL become more widely known about and used the question of mercury comes up. Many will use this as a reason to not use them or to say they are bad for the environment. In reality a CFL is responsible for LESS mercury being introduced into the environment then an incandescent lamp. How can this be you say? Well…

As an average, most CFL’s produced today have about 3.5 milligrams of mercury in them. Of course incandescent have none. However, when electricity is produced by a coal fired power plant it will emit about 10 milligrams of mercury into the atmosphere to produce the energy needed to light the incandescent for its lifetime which is about 1,000 hours. The same power plant will emit only 2.4 milligrams of mercury to light the CFL for the same 1.000 hours. (Because it takes less energy to produce the same amount of light with CFL vs. the incandescent.)

To take this a little further…
1 CFL produces (depending on type, brand etc) 10,000 hours of light
1 incandescent = 1,000 hours. (Ten needed to = 10,000 hours)
Milligrams from power plant for 10,000 hours of incandescent = 100 Mg.
Milligrams from power plant for 10,000 hours of CFL = 24 Mg. + 3.5 in lamp for a total of 27.5 Mg.

Quite a difference. As a comparison of mercury amount in household items:
CFL – 3.5 Mg.
Old style mercury thermometer – 500 Mg.
Manual (non electronic) thermostats – up to 3,000 mg.

And one more……Do you have “silver” (amalgam) fillings in your teeth? Then you most likely have mercury in your mouth!

Answer 6

They have mercury in them . It is a very toxic sustance that shouldn't be in a light bulb.
Disposal requires treating it as hazardous waste.

Answer 7

why would they be breaking? - they last for years-there's no reason to be touching them once you screw on in.