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Q. I don’t know anything about computers-- don’t want to. So here’s a letter. I’ve been reading about those CFL (compact fluorescent lamps) bulbs. Everything seems great but I have some questions.
Liquid mercury versus powder-- which will kill you sooner? CFL bulbs contain powder mercury. If dropped and shatters I am told “do not vacuum up”. I’ve been told a broken CFL bulb can yield airborne mercury levels many times acceptable levels.
Center for Disease Control, US EPA, and the Poison Control Center all say there is no known acceptable procedure for clean up. So does my doctor’s office. The hazardous waste clean-up crew from the phone directory wants $2000. to clean up a dropped shat tered CFL bulb on the floor but will not tell me how to clean it up (the dust particles) either by vacuum or soap and water? How do you dispose of the blown out bulbs of the CFL type?
A.Thanks for the letter. Any fluorescent bulb contains a small amount of mercury-- it’s part of what makes them work. They are very energy efficient from an electrical usage stand point even considering their additional cost. Their use lowers the load on generating plants and even lowers the airborne mercury produced in coal powered electricity production by reducing the amount of coal burned.
Mercury if it gets in the human body collects in certain organs and does all sorts of damage that has been known for quite some time. I’m not absolutely sure what the levels of mercury in a human present symptoms so the greater avoidance the better. Recently we saw an elementary school emptied out after a student playing with a mercury thermometer broke it and started playing with the loose liquid mercury. A mercury thermometer is listed as having 500milligrams (mg) of mercury. To put that into some perspective the amount of mercury in a CFL is about 4mg . An ounce is 28.35 grams. If you consider that a CFL has 4 thousandths of one gram you can see that it is a very small amount indeed. But still must be handled properly.
I don’t know how you developed the opinion that the government agencies you noted as not having guidelines for handling small mercury spills like the size found in compact fluorescent lamps. They do. I have MDE and EPA’s fact sheets in front of me. I have seen others on-line as well so there is, as the use of CFL bulbs increases, a growing information pool on what, where and how do deal with the problem.
Each source I consulted all said the same thing. If you break a CFL don’t use a vacuum cleaner to clean it up. What they universally say to do is to immediately open the windows and lower the temperature in the room. Sort of hard to do in the summer ar ound here so I’d immediately go to the next step which is to take pieces of cardboard or really stiff paper (while wearing rubber gloves, eye protection and a respirator) and carefully scoop things up and place them in a plastic container. To get any last tiny bits up take tape-- like duct tape-- and dab the location very well with the sticky side. Place the tape in the plastic container. Take soap and water with paper towels and wipe the area clean. Throw them into the plastic container too. Lastly, throw the gloves into the container and seal it all up with duct tape and mark it as mercury waste then place in yet another container and label it again.
I recently recommended that burned out CFL bulbs be stored until you can get them to a recycling center. But with a 10,000 hour service life--27 years if you leave one on 24/7-- it’s going to be a long time to accumulate any sort of quantity to dispose.
Residential recycling programs for CFLs are only recently appearing around the country. We have hazardous waste drop off sites in the county and have special Hazardous Household Waste Pick Up Days.The next one will be this June 23 at the Millersville facility from 8 AM until to 2 PM. They will be accepting all sorts of stuff such as old paints, pesticides, bad gasoline etc. Locations are also included on page 224 of the 2006-2007 Guidebook Published by Capital-Gazette Newspapers.The phone number to get more information is 410-222-7951. If you break down and get a computer go online and look at www.mdrecycles.org.