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The Mad Hatter, our slurring, trembling, and confused character of Alice in Wonderland fame, was inflicted with mad hatter’s syndrome; a direct result of working with mercury in the hat-making process. Nowadays, we don’t have to worry so much about exposure to liquid-silver neurotoxins from our local hat factory, but we do have to worry about exposure from the air we breathe, ground water we drink, and fish we eat. The reason why might surprise you.
Mercury is used in a wide variety of consumer and industrial products, including cosmetics, thermostats, thermometers, and yes -- compact fluorescent lightbulbs. So -- are we crazy to bring these things into our homes?
Nope. Here’s why. The alternative is far worse.
Mercury is found in trace amounts in a lot of ores, including coal -- and we use a lot of coal. About 20,000 tons of mercury particles are released into the atmosphere every year by burning fossil fuels. Those airborne particles rain down on the land and sea, where tiny bits of mercury are absorbed into the food chain. Plankton feed little fish and little fish feed bigger fish, which sooner or later feed to us the accumulated total of all that intake. This is what Western scientists refer to as the miracle of biomagnification, or what Eastern philosophers call Karma.
Forty percent of the coal we burn is used to generate electricity and the best way to reduce the amount of coal burned is by reducing the amount of electricity we use. (Here’s the light bulb over the head moment.) Nothing does that better than the compact fluorescent light bulb. In fact, when you tally up the carbon impact of burning coal, on top of its mercury pollution, you’d have to be mad as a hatter not to use compact fluorescent lights.
However, because no one needs more mercury in their diet, you should be concerned about two things when it comes to CFLs. The first issue is breakage and the second is disposal.
The average 35-watt CFL contains about 4 milligrams of mercury, which is an amount equal in diameter to the period on the end of this sentence. Breakage is not a sealed, haz-mat, contamination-suit situation given the small amount of mercury in the bulb, but feel free to wear one if you like dramatic effect. According to the EPA, the first thing you should do if a CF bulb breaks in your house is open a window and leave the room for 15 minutes. When you return, scoop up – don’t sweep – the fragments and dust with stiff paper or cardboard. Next, you can use adhesive tape to lift (think CSI here) the rest of the residue off the surface. After that, wipe down the surface with a damp cloth and place the paper, scraps, dust, cloth, and tape into a sealable plastic bag, which you will in turn place inside a second sealable bag. Disposal isn’t as easy as a walk to your trashcan, but it’s not much harder than that either. Besides, it gives you an excuse to go to Johnston.
Proper disposal of retired CFLs (and CFL fragments) requires a trip to the Eco-Depot at the RI landfill. The Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation operates the depot on special dates at the landfill and at special regional locations throughout the state during the year. Invite a neighbor along on the trip so you can carpool and help them eliminate some hazardous household waste from your watershed. Check out the