Fred Leo

If you learned that mercury in CFL bulbs is bad for your health, I doubt it was from the packaging. I checked the packaging of my GE Energy Smart Instant On 4-year bulbs (with “$66 in energy savings per pack**..” They’re made in China, presumably because of their experience with hazardous materials in light bulbs. And dog food.

Here’s a pic of the packaging. Want to know where it even hints that there’s mercury in these things? See that white flap bottom right? That’s actually the bottom of the package.

I wonder who decided that the best place for a health and safety warning is on the bottom. No doubt it was a decision reached after hours of meetings with marketing people and government regulators from the EPA and consumer safety bureaucrats, probably representing hundreds of thousands of dollars in salaries and tax dollars. Here let me say that I’ll take the job of anyone involved in this decision and do it better just randomly picking a package flap. Somehow they all managed to put the information in the worst possible location.

But what is the information, exactly? Let me quote:

LAMP CONTAINS MERCURY

Manage in accord with Disposal Laws

SEE: www.lamprecycle.org or 1-800-435-4448

LA LAMPARA CONTIENE MERCURIO

Desechela de acuerdo con las leyes que rirgen la eliminacion

So if you read the bottom of your package, and if you go to a website you will find tips on how to “recycle” these bulbs. Recycle is a nice green word, but I wonder if it actually means hazardous disposal, which isn’t quite as fuzzy a term. I mean, are these bulbs magically recycled into something else? What, chemical weapons? Oh, wait. Here are the benefits of “recycling.” Yeah, let’s go with hazardous disposal.

But we’re interested in health and safety in handling broken bulbs, and we find it’s a link to a .doc we’ll need to open in another application. How handy. In that document we learn:

However, in the .doc we also find a link to the EPA’s instructions for disposing of a broken CFL bulb:

You want pets and people to leave the room, among other things, and as you go through the procedures, it’s clear the EPA doesn’t seem to think broken CFL bulbs “pose virtually no risk.” (I’ll paste the EPA’s advice at the end.)

So here’s what I’d assume. Almost no one will read the bottom of the packaging of GE’s Smart Energy bulbs. Of those who do, a few might make it lamprecycle.org, and a fraction of those might get past the part of the downloadable .doc advising that there’s no risk to find the EPA link telling you that a broken CFL bulb is the beginning of your own personal hazmat journey. If the bulb breaks, they will clean it like a normal bulb. And if it doesn’t break, I doubt many are tracking down the local disposal laws.

So, my question then, in broad terms, is WTF!?

Let’s play out with some tasty EPA prose:

Fluorescent light bulbs contain a very small amount of mercury sealed within the glass tubing. EPA recommends the following clean-up and disposal below. Please also read the information on this page about what never to do with a mercury spill.

Before Clean-up: Air Out the Room

* Have people and pets leave the room, and don’t let anyone walk through the breakage area on their way out.
* Open a window and leave the room for 15 minutes or more.
* Shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system, if you have one.

Clean-Up Steps for Hard Surfaces

* Carefully scoop up glass pieces and powder using stiff paper or cardboard and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
* Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.
* Wipe the area clean with damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes. Place towels in the glass jar or plastic bag.
* Do not use a vacuum or broom to clean up the broken bulb on hard surfaces.

Clean-up Steps for Carpeting or Rug

* Carefully pick up glass fragments and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
* Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.
* If vacuuming is needed after all visible materials are removed, vacuum the area where the bulb was broken.
* Remove the vacuum bag (or empty and wipe the canister), and put the bag or vacuum debris in a sealed plastic bag.

Clean-up Steps for Clothing, Bedding and Other Soft Materials

* If clothing or bedding materials come in direct contact with broken glass or mercury-containing powder from inside the bulb that may stick to the fabric, the clothing or bedding should be thrown away. Do not wash such clothing or bedding because mercury fragments in the clothing may contaminate the machine and/or pollute sewage.
* You can, however, wash clothing or other materials that have been exposed to the mercury vapor from a broken CFL, such as the clothing you are wearing when you cleaned up the broken CFL, as long as that clothing has not come into direct contact with the materials from the broken bulb.
* If shoes come into direct contact with broken glass or mercury-containing powder from the bulb, wipe them off with damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes. Place the towels or wipes in a glass jar or plastic bag for disposal.

Disposal of Clean-up Materials

* Immediately place all clean-up materials outdoors in a trash container or protected area for the next normal trash pickup.
* Wash your hands after disposing of the jars or plastic bags containing clean-up materials.
* Check with your local or state government about disposal requirements in your specific area. Some states do not allow such trash disposal. Instead, they require that broken and unbroken mercury-containing bulbs be taken to a local recycling center.

Future Cleaning of Carpeting or Rug: Air Out the Room During and After Vacuuming

* The next several times you vacuum, shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system and open a window before vacuuming.
* Keep the central heating/air conditioning system shut off and the window open for at least 15 minutes after vacuuming is completed.