EPA 3 PAGE GUIDELINE TO CFL CLEANUP: Official 8+-hour cleanup

I'll sure hand it to our government, they seem to love using mercury in consumer products... for all the other things they are looking to 'ban' to protect us from ourselves, they sure don't mind using mercury in everything.

Good Lord, all that over a tiny amount of mercury? My Dad used to play with that stuff as a kid and he's in his 70's sharp as a tack and healthy as a horse...

I say bullshit to do all that for a light bulb

The extensive cleanup process is what I wanted everyone to be alerted to. Mercury thermometers are hardly in use anymore, but let's just put it in all our lighting?

This is effed up.

I caught a report the other day in a New England state where that state's government is imposing strict recycling regulations on the CFLs. I just need to find that link again...

It's really not that big of a deal...I mean how many light bulbs do you break in your home? I have three boys and when they were younger would get carried away throwing a ball and maybe break one...if you break several bulbs a day there are other issues involved.

Last Edited by BRIEF AND TO THE POINT on 01/19/2011 11:40 AM

A friend told me not long ago that his grandson and a full busload of kids were removed from a school bus and people wearing Hasmat suites had to clean the entire bus because a student dropped a mercury switch that he got from a thermostat...That's absurd. My dad and another older friend I have had told me stories of how they would shine coins with mercury and play with it in their bare hands as kids...and they are intelligent sane individuals with no health problems. Why don't they treat high Fructose Corn syrup and all the aspartame they are putting in foods like the poisons they are?

Last Edited by BRIEF AND TO THE POINT on 01/19/2011 11:47 AM

You are absolutely right.

I'm not even 30. When I was a kid my grandma took me to k-mart to buy a toy. I found a little plastic maze that had a blob of mercury you had to get from one side to the other in one piece. I played with that thing forever until I got the idea to drill a hole and extract the mercury. I used to take the mercury blob to school in a film canister and play with in on my desk. I always made sure not to eat it and wash my hands after.

I have never had any symptoms on mercury poisoning.

My mother had mercury fillings as a young adult. I remember as a child her having mercury poisoning and having to get all her fillings changed.

Elemental mercury outside your body is harmless. Inside the body it's not good at all.

This shit they put in light bulbs is not just a blob of elemental mercury. It's small enough particles to get fucking everywhere.

I REALLY don't buy into the hype of mercury being so dangerous. But these CFL bulbs are about as bad a use as fillings. We need to skip this stage in life and move onto LED lighting. Mercury containing CFL bulbs are a dead end.

Dude seriously. When i used to work at a department store on the docks we used to break the big ones for fun. Ya know the big long fluorescent tubes. They contained mercury, im sure they still do. Hell ive broken one of these new CFL bulbs in my house too. I just picked up the glass and vacuumed the rest. Nothing to get your panties in a bunch over.

Who hasn't at one time of another broken one of the big fluorescent tubes if they could find one that hadn't already been smashed LOL.

I bet someone is re-writing the tech labor handbook. No one is gonna get 8 hrs for that

vs. 5 second cleanup for Edison bulbs.

Edison bulb cleanup instruction manual:
1. Sweep up broken bulb.
2. Toss in trashcan

You ever play star wars with em'??

yeah i was gonna mention sword fighting but that only lasted for about 1 contact each. You had to look away too or you might get glass particles in your eyes.

PLEASE regulate industry.

mercury in vaccines and tooth fillings is ok, but light bulbs require 8 hrs cleanup? Um, that's insane...

Nope. Elemental Mercury is ok as long as you don't eat it. All the other manufactured kinds have dangers including their vaccines.

Exactly, but look past that, Brief. Possible mercury readings in our homes to make sure we don't have incandescent lighting, and our homes are mercury free? I saw a recent thread about water inspections in homes ffs. Who knows how many different ways this can go... garbage/recycling monitoring, for one.

Eight hours is extremely excessive, but the difference is, the mercury in the light bulbs is vapor, and much more easily absorbed by the body.

The point, I think, of the original post is, our government is forcing us to make an unnecessary change in our lifestyles for a modest gain in energy efficiency at the cost of our time and, maybe, our health.

Besides, those things are ugly and the light they put out is unnatural and headache-inducing.

I don't know about y'all, but I'm stocking up on as many old school lightbulbs as I can get before the ban.

Look guys, I'm all on board for a good conspiracy, and I do think it's complete BS the government is trying to force people to change to these bulbs. Complete BS.

However, that amount of mercury, even in a more absorbable vaporous form, just isn't dangerous. People used to play with it back in the day. Healthy? No. I can understand why people would choose not to buy these bulbs, especially with LED stuff coming along.

But even if your body absorbed every bit of the mercury in one of these bulbs, the effect wouldn't even be noticeable. Granted, if you're going around smashing 20 bulbs a day you might have a health issue. But if you're doing that, it sounds like you have bigger problems than mercury!

We broke one at the Kmart I worked at and swept it up with a broom and kicked what was left under a shelf.

Then, just went and dumped it in the trash can with everything else.

Yeah, I see that too...15 years + ago we used incandescent and haligon bulbs...One day while flying paper airplanes with my kids, one landed on those hot ass bulbs and caught fire before we noticed it...we had like a thousand planes flying around...i made the decision then to replace them all with compact florescent bulbs...we've broken maybe three in ten years and I don't fear a thing...

Last Edited by BRIEF AND TO THE POINT on 01/19/2011 12:13 PM

Lol. Note to self: no radio controlled helicopters in the house after CFLs are mandatory in all homes!!!

I'm not saying snort the gas...and venting the room is fine too...but this is just overboard...I've been using solar power for many years now and I can guarantee CFL's are a lot more efficient and safer as a fire hazard than incandescent bulbs...Just a flick of water on a hot incandescent will make it explode.

I think my biggest problem with them is that they're being forced on us. It's not the government's job to tell me what type of lightbulbs to have in my house. I'm all for letting the market decide. You've obviously made your choice, and it turns out to be a convenient one, because the competition is about to be banned. I just wish they would let me make up my own mind.

as a rule those things should be done outside, but we have large rooms so I sometimes allow it...I guess the other safety features I have is that all my CFLs are in globes or protected in some way...who hangs a bulb in an open socket?

Landfills are being monitored for increasing mercury levels, as most people are throwing CFLs in the garbage. As I said before, fear-mongering aside, I see more regulations and invasions of privacy down the road.

Brief, I have big rooms and I have no exposed light bulbs. I just sometimes can't resist buzzing people's heads when I have company. ;)

Awesome, and you probably hit the nail on the head with the fear and potential regulations...drive fear into the public and then charge them to pretend to fix it...brilliant!

Thing is, all that shit don't scare me...I don't fear getting blown up on a plane, or dying from not wearing a seat belt...I can safely drive after a few beers and salt and cholesterol have never been a concern...

We don't drink fluoridated water, and my kids and I have perfect teeth...We don't drink soda and I'm not afraid to sit in the smoking area at a restaurant! Everything is ass fuck'n backwards!!

mercury in vaccines and tooth fillings is ok, but light bulbs require 8 hrs cleanup? Um, that's insane...

potgrowers gitz it fer free.

they don't care bout' no steekin' bulbs.

some old guy/electrician said they'll fry your old wiring.

deathbulbs deux