If mercury is bad then why do they add it to lite bulbs?

Question

they put mercury in litebulbs for the briteness, but what happens when you drop one? Calling the firedepartment or a cleanup crew to come to my house is not gonna cut it. They need to come up with a better answer to the old fashioned litebulbs or I switch back.

Answer 1

The amount of mercury in a modern fluorescent bulb is minimal.  Also, it is in the form of vapor, so it dissipates in the air fairly quickly.  The EPA has a fairly reasonable cleanup procedure detailed at http://www.epa.gov/mercury/spills/index....  Note that there is no mention of calling the fire department or a hazmat service.

From the environmental side of things, the amount of mercury in a bulb is much less than the mercury created by a coal fired generating plant to light a standard bulb over the life of the bulb.

The mercury is required for the bulb to function.  It is not just a matter of brightness, the bulb is pretty much useless without it.  It would be good to get rid of the mercury altogether, but for now CFLs are still better for the environment overall.

Answer 2

I remember back in the 60's in High School we used to play with the stuff, rolling it around, hysteria abounds.

Answer 3

Why don't you just use normal light bulbs?

Answer 4

The dangers of Mercury are greatly over exaggerated. Just as many other "dangers" are over exaggerated.