I broke a low energy bulb. Now I’m worried about mercury.

[MinesaBottle]

One of those spiral ones. Only a small part of the tube broke and I cleaned it up, wrapped the lot in paper towels and plastic bag and put it in the bin outside. I’ve heard it’s dangerous to break them but surely they don’t contain enough mercury to make you sick?

I should never have googled!!

Read the packaging - it’s quite shocking - no pun intended

You’re supposed to clear the house for 3 hours or something

Really?? I broke many a mercury thermometer in my student nurse days and came to no harm. Who knew?!!

You'll be fine.

blogs.edf.org/climate411/2007/07/31/cfl_mercury-2/

I didn’t see any mercury and I’ve been over the area with a torch! Only bits of glass which I’ve cleared up. Some of the advice freaked me out - calling in the council to report hazardous waste?!

My dad told me when he was at school in the 40s the science teacher demonstrated mercury’s liquid property by having them roll a bead around in their hand!!! Dad lived to 81 so there’s that...

My dad told me when he was at school in the 40s the science teacher demonstrated mercury’s liquid property by having them roll a bead around in their hand!!! Dad lived to 81 so there’s that...

We all did that in the 1980s, rolled it around the desk.

I was only talking about playing with mercury as a child today to some horrified mums as I waited for dgc after school .

The head teacher said that rounding the children up was like chasing mercury so she must have done it as well.

I did GCSE chemistry in the 80s but don’t remember rolling it round the desk...unless the fumes killed the memory

Thank you, I feel better now, I was worried I’d unleashed a horrendous toxic spill in the spare room!

Really?? shock I broke many a mercury thermometer in my student nurse days and came to no harm. Who knew?!! grin

You just beat me to it. 😄. Was just about to say the same.

I've broken a few such bulbs. Meh.

My parents both did that with the mercury at school, one is in their 90s now and the other isn't far off.

I once smashed a giant ring light (used for filming) that’s the equivalent of 6-8 bulbs! I googled what to do as I was also worried about the mercury. Hoovered up the powder, then cleaned up all glass shards (tiny ones using sticky tape). Aired the room for a few hours and everything was fine. This was 4 years ago and never became ill or noticed anything weird as a result. Had a healthy uneventful pregnancy during that time, and I spent most days working in the same room :P