# broken "spiral" light bulb



## gigismom (Nov 26, 2001)

a lamp got broken today and the "spiral" light bulb along with it. there was a very brief flash, maybe flames and then nothing. i just cleaned up the broken glass and went on with my day. dh just came home from work and said that there is mercury in those bulbs. is this true? was i or kids exposed to something dangerous? i did not see anything that looked like liquid metal.... that i would expect from mercury. anybody have any thoughts or can point me in the right direction for info...

thanks

jen


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## desamom (May 23, 2008)

Yes they have a small amount of mercury and I have read that you need to take precaution when cleaning them up. I quickly did a search and found this from Energy Star (I am in Canada, but I believe this is from the US), check it out:

http://www.energystar.gov/ia/partner...et_Mercury.pdf


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## gigismom (Nov 26, 2001)

thanks, i found that link too... i wonder what risk there is since i did not follow those precautions. my kids quickly left the room and stayed out for over 15 minutes but i just picked up the pieces with my hands and put them in a plastic bag and sealed it. there were no small pieces so no vacuuming required....


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## indie (Jun 16, 2003)

I had the same thing happen before I knew how to properly clean it up and I did some things wrong. It sucks that this information is not more widely disseminated. Its actually good that you didn't vacuum because it is mercury vapor. And its good that they were out of the room at least for awhile. If it makes you feel any better, I have read that when broken the mercury escapes slowly over a number of hours so some of the mercury was still in the bulb most likely when you threw it out. And it is much less mercury than the old thermometers. At this point I would open the windows and run a fan to air the house out.


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