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Twelve Things About Fluorescent Light Bulbs and Mercury

1. Using fluorescent light bulbs helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions; provides light at a lower cost; helps us ‘save the planet’, and keeps our energy costs down.
2. All types of fluorescent bulbs contain around 5mg or more of mercury, along with other toxins, such as lead - so they’re potentially hazardous.
3. If mercury’s released into the air, you can inhale it into your lungs. Or it can end up in water and so enter the human food supply through fish.
4. If mercury gets into your body, it can affect your mood, your cognitive ability, your neuromuscular and nervous systems. In high dosages, it can be fatal. Overexposure to methyl mercury in foetuses and infants can affect memory, attention and motor skills. Symptoms of exposure to elemental mercury (the type of mercury inside fluorescent bulbs) include tremors, insomnia, respiratory failure, changes in nerve response, muscle atrophy and death.
5. If a fluorescent bulb breaks, you could be cut with glass shards. So don’t walk in bare feet in the area of the broken bulb. Avoid touching the broken bulb with bare hands. Don’t use a broom or brush to sweep the area. Don’t use a vacuum cleaner either because this can cause the mercury to become airborne. Moreover, vacuum cleaners can be contaminated in the process. Instead, use sticky tape and then wet wipes or a wet paper towel to collect all the small glass shards.
6. Put the glass shards and the discarded wet paper towel inside a sealable glass jar or a plastic bag. Take that sealed jar or tied plastic bag to a hazardous waste collection site – or ask Waste King to remove this waste for you.
7. Mercury levels in the air can increase when the spill area is agitated through cleaning attempts. Contaminated shoes and clothing can spread mercury to other areas. So, when a fluorescent bulb breaks, open the windows for at least 30 minutes – to prevent the mercury vapours staying where you can inhale them.
8. When a fluorescent bulb burns out, put it into two sealed plastic bags and dispose of it at a recycling centre – or ask Waste King to remove this waste for you.
9. Recycling fluorescent light bulbs allows the mercury to be reused and prevents it from contaminating the environment.
10. Never put a product that contains mercury in an incinerator.
11. If mercury enters your body, contact your local poison control centre. Mercury can be removed from a person’s body via suction or medication.
12. To dispose of spent fluorescent bulbs simply and safely, call Waste King and arrange for its operatives to remove the waste.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Glenn Currie .