I've heard that CFL bulbs produce levels of mercury. Would this get into the plant for any reason? Just curious. I personally don't like CFLs...but thats besides the point.
right its only inside the bulb. if the bulb is broken you can get VERY sick you need to call either 311 or 911 or the poison control center, often you hear about florescent bulbs breaking in office buildings and a few people getting physically ill and vomiting because of the mercury vapor in the air. its not a good thing. but we need and want it badly!!!! so we continue buying such dangerous products
I remember a lot of survives from 9/11 suffered mercury poisoning (and later died), from the mercury gas released from all the fluorescent bulbs that smashed.
Wow...screw CFLs then... What if one broke and shards got over the plant? The plant is pretty much toast after that...or it might grow out a human arm or something and attack my dogs...screw that...no mercury poisoning for me... So...Sodium lights, whatchya think? HPS...expensive?
imho, this is a significant exaggeration. I would suggest anyone concerned do their own research on how much mercury is in a cfl bulb and how much might much one might realistically be exposed to in the event of a bulb break and how much that exposure can effect oneself.
Yep, me too. If one lamp were that damgerous, the government wouldn't want everyone to use them instead of incandesent light bulbs.
My fiance broke one with her hands one day. No cough, no sickness, idk. Perhaps it needs to be direct exposure to induce illness.
same thing happened to me last week.was trying to unscrew it from a lamp and i just crushed it in my hand.opened the windows and left the room for 20mins before coming back and cleaning it up...i felt fine
The fact is CFL's aren't that dangerous. There's a very, very small amount of mercury in them, not all of which is released when broken, and certainly one is not exposed to all the mercury released from a breakage. I wouldn't recommend crushing dozens of bulbs with your teeth, but the notion that a single bulb break can be toxic or requires a 911 or poison control call is just silly. But look, all this info is readily available and discussed. Read it for yourself and decide if you still have questions. Look up amounts of mercury in various types of bulbs, exposure levels and effects, and how much mercury realistically is vaporized when a bulb breaks.
bump for this thread...saw this the other day on a billboard and it was a fucked up picture of some dudes foot. Figured I should def let you guys know as many use these bulbs so I did a search first and came up with this. if you google mercury exposure that is about the only picture that comes up.