[Dallas59]

[thouworm]

LOL! my first thought!

[Bellflower]

Just what I thought. The greenies are trying to do it all over with fluorescent light bulbs. Imagine all of those things in the landfills contaminating soil and water and once they break the mercury gas goes up into the air. I hate to see it.

[Mike Darancette]

When the contents of millions of these little fellows start reaching the water table we will have big trouble.

[dayglored]

It's true that CFLs have a small quantity of mercury, and it's a potential danger if the bulb breaks.

But are you guys aware that old-fashioned standard fluorescent light bulbs (the long tube types in your shop fixtures, and the circular ones in the kitchen and bathroom) have just as much mercury if not more than CFLs?

The warning about not playing with broken fluorescent bulbs goes back at least to when I was kid in the 50's, and probably way before that.

Anyone like me, who has been in offices and factories where there are hundreds or thousands of 4-foot-long fluorescent tubes in the ceiling, views the current "OMG!! OMG!! OMG!!" reaction to CFLs with a certain amount of skepticism.

Not that the potential danger isn't there -- it is. My point is: it's not a new thing, and somehow civilization survives with all the long tube bulbs too.

The lesson here is: Don't confuse the social/political aspect of CFLs (having them crammed down our throats by bureaucrats) with the technical/scientific aspect which is the same-old-thing as with the long tubes.