Warning: Vacate room when CFL bulb breaks

[LoudRam]

Less than a month after the U.S. Congress passed an energy bill banning the incandescent light bulb by 2014, the UK Environment Agency issued guidelines calling for evacuation of any room where an energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulb is broken, releasing toxic mercury.

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59554

[light4mypath]

wonderful :doh

[lisa]

http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/cfl.asp

[light4mypath]

Thanks Lisa :hug

[scrappergirl]

i had no clue of any of this (disposal, plans to ban them, etc).

all this time compaines are touting how wonderful they are (we have half our house outfitted with them) and all the while they're being banned by congress?

so now we're going back to regular old ligtbulbs?
geesh. :doh

make up my mind!

[seekingtruth1]

Personally id stick with the old for a while b/c MErcury poisoning is in itself horrific but it can set you up for a lifetime of illness - cancer etc...It greatly supresses immune function. I comabt mercury by chorella, juicing organic greens and ingesting french green clay.

I dont know who Snopes gets its info from - could be in the end these bulbs breaking IS really no biggies but if its based on the same inof that says Mercury in vaccines and in fillings are safe - Id say run out of teh room and get that toxic cleaning crew.

My friend got mercury poison from one bad fish dinner and hasnt been able to work in 5 yrs and while better hasnt compelety recoverd and has NO hair on his body.... :o(
Scary stuff!

[LoudRam]

They aren't deadly if you break them but they are not harmless either. This is another quote from the story...

Health experts warned this week that people with certain skin ailments will suffer from the new eco-friendly bulbs which cause conditions such as eczema to flare up. Additionally, the bulbs have been linked to migraine headaches in some people.

The Environment Agency's latest advice focuses on the 6 to 8 milligrams of toxic mercury in each bulb.

Users who break a bulb should vacate the room for at least 15 minutes, the new guidelines say. The debris should not be removed with a vacuum cleaner, which could put toxic dust into the air, but with rubber gloves. The broken glass and all residue is to be placed into a sealed plastic bag and taken to a local official recycling site for proper disposal.

I'm not trying to scare anybody but I just want to get the facts out there. BTW... I'm an electrician and I won't be using them in my house until I have no other choice.

[Theresa]

Straight from the EPA horse's mouth - Spills, Disposal, and Site Cleanup. http://www.epa.gov/hg/spills/index.htm

[SnoDog]

We are putting cfl's in all our lights except one which the cats keep knocking over. Don't know what I'll do with that one light if they ban regular bulbs.

[Nova]

I've never had a CFL break. Even when they get damp from rain (outside.)

The amount of mercury in the new lights in very, very small. Plus, they can be recycled in my area.