Broken CFL costs homeowner $2,000

[WhiskeyPapa]

LINK (http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=/Culture/archive/200705/CUL20070510b.html)


Safety Concerns Emerge in Energy-Efficient Light Debate
By Fred Lucas
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
May 10, 2007

(CNSNews.com) - At a time when fluorescent bulbs are gaining in popularity among global warming activists, politicians and consumers, Brandy Bridges discovered a dark side to energy-efficient lighting.

With Congress and state legislatures considering fluorescent-only legislation, the Prospect, Maine, resident is going against the grain - removing every compact fluorescent bulb from her home just months after installing them as part of a remodeling project.

The decision to take them down was prompted by safety concerns. Earlier, Bridges dropped a fluorescent bulb in her daughter's room and it shattered, leaving potentially unsafe levels of mercury inside the rug.

At the suggestions of the state's Department of Environmental Protection, she now has to pay $2,000 for a professional environmental clean up. Her seven-year-old daughter sleeps in the family room, as her room is sealed off by plastic.

Crap, I've broken more than one CFL. They aren't exactly that sturdy.

This also brings up another question: Can old CFLs be tossed in the trash?

[InfiniteNothing]

It is not recomended. The mercury in them is very small but it's one of those things where if everyone did it, it could come back to get us. You can probably dispose of it at the same place you dispose of batteries.

[Napoleon54]

$2000 clean up bill and sealing off the daughter's room with plastic? That story seems a bit excessive and dramatic to me. I bet you get more mercury exposure from a can of tuna fish.

[Jeffbx]

:stupid:

Let's see, $2000 to clean it, or $500 to re-carpet her room....

[InfiniteNothing]

A CFL containing 5 mg of mercury breaks in your child’s bedroom that has a volume of about 25 m3 (which corresponds to a medium sized bedroom). The entire 5 mg of mercury vaporizes immediately (an unlikely occurrence), resulting in an airborne mercury concentration in this room of 0.2 mg/m3. This concentration will decrease with time, as air in the room leaves and is replaced by air from outside or from a different room. As a result, concentrations of mercury in the room will likely approach zero after about an hour or so.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/05/ask_treehugger_14.php

[Paymaster]

This also brings up another question: Can old CFLs be tossed in the trash?

It's illegal in California. Ditto for batteries.

[cruelpupet]

Well Infinite Nothing already pointed out the site I was going to, but...you can avoid everything and just get LED lights. They also last 5x longer then CFL (50k hours vs. 10k hours).

Expect consumer priced White LED based lights to hit the market 2nd half of this year.

[gear02]

Uh...if some people who work in offices hate CFLs, why would you install it at home? I mean it's great to be energy conscious, but I have to agree with CP, LED is the way to go.

[InfiniteNothing]

Have you seen LED lighting? it's very stark.

[Devhux]

Here's what Snopes has to say (http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/cfl.asp) about the subject. :)

[Houdini]

Have you seen LED lighting? it's very stark.

Actually, it's not. Plenty of tactical lights have gone to LED now. Even some that use conventional batteries instead of high-output lithium ones can be blinding as hell. Great for searching out an area, identifying and blinding a bad guy, etc. The technology really has progressed more than most think. Just stop by a local gun shop or something and look around and play with the lights. Check out Surefire or other tactical light companies. Not so stark. And efficient as hell. My older Surefire with the upgraded bulb was VERY bright - enough to dazzle/temporarily incapacitate people. I bought it before my trip to Europe a few years ago in case I had to dazzle and kick a bad guy out of my train car. The thing will drain 2 of the expensive lithium batteries (can't remember the number - often used in digicams) in <20 minutes. And it's hot as hell. The new high-output LEDs can burn much longer, and now (and as technology continually progresses) as bright or brighter. Plus you can strobe them, etc. Very cool.

[Markel]

Here's what Snopes has to say (http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/cfl.asp) about the subject. :)
The Snopes article does not contradict the story at the top of this thread. Snopes says that it is not necessary to do an environmental cleanup (but to sweep the area). However, the article at the top mentions it was on a rug, and the state recommended the environmental cleanup (of course they are going to recommend the safest route to keep their behinds covered). If this had happened to me, I may have taken up the rug (even it it was installed) - more likely I would have used my shop vac with the exhaust going outside (to play it safe). But spend $2000? No way!

[Napoleon54]

The Snopes article does not contradict the story at the top of this thread. Snopes says that it is not necessary to do an environmental cleanup (but to sweep the area). However, the article at the top mentions it was on a rug, and the state recommended the environmental cleanup (of course they are going to recommend the safest route to keep their behinds covered). If this had happened to me, I may have taken up the rug (even it it was installed) - more likely I would have used my shop vac with the exhaust going outside (to play it safe). But spend $2000? No way!

You're right, Snopes didn't outright dispute the story. But they do dispute the take-home message that a $2000 cleanup is necessary anytime someone breaks a CFL, and I think that's the important thing.

There are a number of ways that that story could've developed the way it did. Perhaps some misinformed or overzealous Maine DEP employee gave that advice up front. Perhaps the woman had read something about there being mercury in the bulbs and called up all paranoid and asked "how do I get rid of spilled mercury"? Perhaps something in between, with both the caller and the Maine DEP rep each doing a bit of exageration. Regardless, the response taken in the anecdote is a bit blown out of proportion and I think that's what Snopes tried to show.

[CornMonkey]

Interesting that I should see this story. I just met with the president of GreenHome.com and this story was one of the things we talked about. He's a leading figure in "green" consulting and he said this story was simply not true. I believe him.

[Paymaster]

When I was a kid, I had a teacher who gave me a vial of mercury to play with. It was pretty cool to have a "metal" that you could roll around in your hands. The surface tension would keep it together, yet it was clearly a liquid. Very cool.

Of course, this may be the cause of my insanity. But it was still cool.

(He also let me play with Radioactive cobalt. My favorite quote was "Don't let that leather pouch fool you... the radiation goes straight through it".)

So yeah, CFLs don't scare me. :)