A point to be made; POSSIBLY, if a compact or even old tube flourescent is broken while burning, MAYBE you have a problem with vapors, in operation, the mercury is vaporized.
Otra vez, I’m one of those brats grown old who used to collect mercury because it was fun to play with. We used to make “silver” pennies, bit of a trick, because at room temp, mercury has a hellacious surface tension. One had to press the bead of mercury onto the penny without having it squirt out one side, best I recall, we made a dent in the thumb with a pencil eraser, something like that.
Of course, the mercury poisoning I suffered then probably accounts for why I can’t remember something I knew at age six. Seriously, all the boys in my class played with the stuff. One guy had found his Dad’s stash, stole some out of the jar. Fairly valuable commodity, 76 lb. flask was trading today at about $550.00.
Like all heavy metals, mercury is toxic, especially hard on the nervous system, if ingested. Ye ol’ “mad hatter” was a common term for an age when mercury was used, with heat, in hat making.
BTW, I went to CF bulbs for about 3/4 of the house years ago, saves money and I seldom replace bulbs. Not worth a hoot for reading light, and they don’t respond to rheostat dimmers, but I haven’t changed the front porch light in ten years.
Otra vez, I’m one of those brats grown old who used to collect mercury because it was fun to play with. We used to make “silver” pennies, bit of a trick, because at room temp, mercury has a hellacious surface tension. One had to press the bead of mercury onto the penny without having it squirt out one side, best I recall, we made a dent in the thumb with a pencil eraser, something like that.The mercury you had was "sick", i.e. a film of oxide and dust accumulates on the surface and significantly reduces its ability to amalgamate. You can either retort it and recondense it in a closed system or, IIRC, clean it with some nitric acid somehow.