There seems to be alot of concern and controversy about whether or not the mercury that one can be exposed to from a broken Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) bulb is harmful to one’s health or not.  CFL’s have become very popular because they use considerably less energy and last longer than traditional incandescent light bulbs.  Well, the truth of the matter is that CFL bulbs are not hazardous to one’s health if it breaks (according to one source Treehugger.com) unless it is eaten or absorbed through the skin, however, caution should still be taken to avoid inhaling the vapor that is released and touching the broken bulb when cleaning it up. It turns out that there is a very small amount of mercury in CFL bulbs, about 4 mg, compared to 500 mg of mercury in the old glass thermometers that our parents used on us as kids according to the EPA’s FAQ sheet.  No mercury is released when the bulb is intact (not broken) or in use.

The recommended way to clean up a broken CFL bulb is actually quite simple and safe and NOT costly:

1) Air out the room where the bulb was broken and wait a few minutes for the mercury vapor to dissipate.

2)  Put the broken bulb  into a plastic bag(use a paper towel) or gently sweep up with a dust pan and broom (DO NOT use a vacuum cleaner).

3)  Wipe down the affected area again with a damp paper towel and put the paper towel in the plastic bag.

4)  SEAL the plastic bag.

Put the bag aside in a safe place until garbage day and dispose of it as you would normally do for household hazardous waste like batteries (“AA”, etc.) according to your city’s hazardous waste disposal guidelines.  Disposing of CFL bulbs vary from city to city and can be as simple as placing on top of your recycle cart WITH A NOTE denoting that it is a broken CFL to dropping it off at a designated hazardous waste collection site.  Please check with your city’s garbage collection company for specific instructions.

In essence, CFL bulbs save money, conserve energy and are simple, safe, and not costly to clean up if the bulb is broken.  In the long run there are important cost savings and environmental advantages to using a CFL vs. incandescent light bulbs.

If you are interested in joining the campaign to help spread the word about the benefits of using CFL bulbs, go to the Onebillionbulbs web site for more information.

Together, we can “enlighten” the world…one bulb at a time!!!