Light bulbs have MERCURY! ?

Question

Today, I looked at one of my light bulb and noticed a piece of it broke off. I heard that light bulbs have mercury in it and I was wondering if I could get mercury poisoning if a piece of a light bulb broke off.

This is what my light bulb looks like:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/briancweed/226650779/

Answer 1

You are not likely to get mercury poisoning from a single broken light bulb. The problem is that the low energy bulbs like you showed do contain mercury and will get in our landfills and leach into more sensitive area of our environment unless we take more stringent steps to dispose and recycle them properly. It's the long-term exposure to mercury that should be a major concern. Concentrated short term exposure can be dangerous, too. But I doubt you have much to worry about.