I didn't know that.
When the environmental groups I belong to recommended energy-saver bulbs, I dutifully went right out an bought some.
A couple of years later the utility company gave them out free at my senior center. And recently SDG&E came around and replaced any old-style bulbs that anyone might have had.
But nobody ever told me about the toxic mercury vapor. So when a bulb broke, I just picked up the pieces carefully, as I would with any broken lightbulb, and thought no more about it.
I have chronic respiratory problems and when I developed a heavy nose-bleed and bloody sputum for a few months, I didn't connect it to the broken lightbulb. It was only later on when I happened to be surfing the web and came across the instructions for handling a broken "environmentally-friendly" lightbulb, that I began to understand.
You're not supposed to clean up the bulb yourself. You're suppose to open the windows, evacuate the area, and call a Haz-Mat team to remove the carpet and decontaminate your home.
You knew that right? Just because the warnings aren't printed on the lightbulb packages doesn't mean that you're as ignorant as I was.
But, you know, I just happened to think that in the event of an earthquake, flood, terrorist attack, or other catastrophe, there are apt to be plenty of broken lightbulbs.
And that means that in addition to any other problems, there will be a lot of highly toxic mercury vapor.
Well, what did we expect from products made in China and marketed by U.S. energy companies? Healthy, environmentally-friendly, consumer safety considerations? Are we nuts?
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