However, mercury is treated as a hazardous material and must be disposed of properly. So, when one breaks in the course of operation or is broken during installation or removal, what is the homeowner or business to do? Call in a remediation service that might charge thousands of dollars? Well, that's one way to deal with the problem. Another is the method suggested by several utilities and other outlets.
But for those who are trying to squelch the use of CFLs based on mercury, here's a larger question to ponder. CFLs use far less power to make and operate over the course of their lifetime. How much coal is not consumed as a result of CFL usage over the standard incandescent bulb?
That's not a trivial answer, because coal contains significant amounts of mercury, a portion of which is emitted when the coal is burned for power. That portion amounts to 48 tons of mercury per year from coal fired power plants. A CFL has about 4 milligrams of mercury.
Another way to look at this is consider that power plants emit 10mg of mercury to power an incandescent bulb, but only 2.4mg to power a CFL. Over the life of the bulb, you release far less mercury into the environment. It's not a perfect solution, but it does ultimately mean a reduction in mercury emissions when looking at the combination of power generation and light emission.
This doesn't mean that you don't have to take precautions to reduce the possibility of having contamination issues at home. These are common sense precautions:
If a CFL breaks in your home, open nearby windows to disperse any vapor that may escape, carefully sweep up the fragments (do not use your hands) and wipe the area with a disposable paper towel to remove all glass fragments. Do not use a vacuum. Place all fragments in a sealed plastic bag and follow disposal instructions above.
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