Jim's Blog

Everyone should have this a priori knowledge because it's bound to happen. My wife had an unused flourescent bulb in our pantry, just sitting there on a shelf. Somehow she pulled it off the shelf and shattered it.

I got mad that she hadn't heeded my warnings to at least put them into a ziplock bag.

I knew that these things contain mercury vapor, and having read about the dangers of Dimethyl Mercury, I got a little panicky. (Mmmm, fish anyone?) I evacuated everyone from the kitchen and opened a window, then I started Googling around for what to do about it. Here's what I found:

• What should I do if I break a fluorescent bulb?
• Release of mercury from broken fluorescent bulbs

There seems to be a discrepancy between the vendors and the scientists. I can't imagine why. :-)

Permalink | Posted by Jim @ 12:42 PM