Mercury in new light bulbs??

[caseysmomgo]

The new lightbulbs that we're all supposed to be switching to (I think they're called CFL bulbs?)...They're supposed to be energy-efficient, environmentally friendly and save electricity, but is anyone concerned about their safety?

They've got mercury in them... The experts say that it's a small amount and it's safely encapsulated in the bulb, but in the next breath they tell us to make sure that we don't break any of the new bulbs because of the harmful mercury... They say you have to take extra care when picking up a broken bulb, by putting on gloves, ventilating the area, if you vacuum it up, dispose of the bag, etc, etc....

Well, I broke one a couple weeks ago and picked it all up the "normal" way, not even thinking another thought about it. Now I'm getting kind of skeeved out about it and I'm wondering what your thoughts are on this??

It seems like everything out there is unsafe any more.... Grr... or am I just being too paranoid???

 

[morningstar]

They're called compact fluorescent bulbs and yes, they have a small amount of mercury and yes, you should be careful disposing of them. However, I doubt you need to be worried about improperly disposing of one bulb.

When you think about it, the damage from the mercury is probably less scary than the environmental damage from regular light bulbs, which end up causing us to have way more pollution in our environment because of the extra energy required to use them.

You also have to be careful disposing of other items that have been in existence for a long time, such as batteries, paint, car oil, etc. Current versions of these items are actually way less harmful than previous versions - for instance, we used to use kerosene to light our homes; so dangerous and bad for our health. Paint used to be lead-based.

It is incumbent upon all of us to be careful with what we use, how we use it and how we dispose of it. It doesn't mean that we shouldn't use these items, just that we need to be responsible consumers.