MNN - Mother Nature Network

is shattered, the Florida Department of Environment recommends ventilating a room for fifteen minutes before cleaning up the fragments.While not a bad idea, it might be impractical in cold weather, in stores, or in theatres where performances are in progress. The mercury that does evaporate is not vindictive, seeking out human victims, but diffuses throughout the air in a building. Even in a small room containing 1000 cubic feet of air, not much mercury could enter an occupants body, since humans breathe only about fifteen cubic feet of air an hour.A person cleaning up a broken compact fluorescent would likely receive less mercury than a person eating a six ounce can of tuna fish.The US Food and Drug Administration approves tuna that contains an average 0.37parts per million of mercury as methylmercury, more toxic than metallic mercury. Thus a person eating a six ounce can of tuna consumes about 0.06 milligrams of mercury, more than 1% of the mercury contained in a compact fluorescent. Compact fluorescents are safe. Can compact fluorescents be safely disposed of in the trash? This question came up when I served on the Sarasota County solid waste board five years ago, and meaningful guidance has yet to be given to the public. The question of disposal of fluorescents came up some two decades ago regarding the common four foot long fluorescents that then contained up to fifty milligrams of mercury. Safety of landfills had not been well studied and there were fears that most of the mercury would be released as a gas or leach into the drinking water. Commercial firms were required to recycle the long fluorescents. Homeowners were not allowed to put the long fluorescents in the trash, and the task of getting them to a hazardous waste site has been left up to them. In recent years, the mercury in long fluorescents has been reduced to as little as nine milligrams, and numerous studies from reliable government and academic groups are available on the internet showing that release of mercury as a gas or leaching from landfills is not substantial. Thus much of the reason for keeping fluorescents out of landfills is no longer valid. The advantages of using fluorescent lamps should not be inhibited by unrealistic guidelines for handling and disposing of them. The Florida Department of Environment should notify the public if disposal in the trash is the best solution. If disposal in the trash can really be shown to be dangerous, then conveinient collection sites for consumers should be established.