The corkscrew bulbs sucked and contained mercury oxide. ‘So much safer’. But I’m done with incandescent too. Been using LED for years. Muy Bueno. Plus prices are way down on them.
When I learned of the planned government mandated phaseout of 60 w incandescent bulbs it was a year or two out so prices had not gone up in the stores. I bought a lifetime supply of them for chump change. Got a lot of 4 in a pack for $1, most all of them little more than that. Basically, for about $20 I have more than I will ever need. Especially since now the LEDs have come down so much that I have put those in the hard to reach fixtures & I only use the incandescent bulbs in the rest.
I had one of the corkscrew lights pop in the upstairs bathroom, showering my laundry basket with “powder”.
I didn’t know any better so I just rewashed the clothes and dried them, which blew the mercury dust everywhere upstairs.
Shortly after, I was diagnosed with “mercury poisoning”.
Took months to get my levels back to a safe range.
Now I know why the “broken bulb cleanup instructions” are so dire...as if anyone can afford a hazmat team to come to their house.
I stopped using them and went to the LED bulbs which I like.
Fluorescent lamps are misnamec and they are mercury vapor lamps
and all contain mercury vapor concentrations approximately 2 million times which you should ever be exposed to
when you ignite mercury vapor all you get is UV radiation
the UV radiation is absorbed by phosphorus coating on the glass and gives off mostly visible light - but it’s horrible quality light flickers and if you ever break these things do you have a toxic mess