• Fluorescent bulbs can be a hazard as well as a boon.compact fluorescent bulb image by Albert Lozano from Fotolia.com
  
  Compact fluorescent light bulbs are great energy-saving devices, often consuming only half the energy of their incandescent counterparts. These bulbs, however, also possess danger with their efficiency. The bulbs are powered by the highly toxic metal mercury, which poses serious health risks to people if they are exposed to it.
  
  

Poison

• Each compact fluorescent light bulb contains about 5 mg of mercury. While this is technically a very small amount, a Stanford University study states that small amount is enough to poison up to 6,000 gallons of water so it is unsafe to drink. More recent bulbs have reduced their mercury amount, but there is still enough in those bulbs to contaminate 1,000 gallons of water.
  
  

Vapors

• Mercury gives off vapors, but only if it is exposed to the air, as would happen if a you break a bulb. The vapor itself is highly toxic, and young children are especially at risk; the vapor can damage the nervous system of children or unborn fetuses. The amount of mercury vapor exposed upon breaking a bulb can be 100 times greater than the federal guidelines for chronic exposure to mercury. This can be the case even after the mercury is cleaned up. The danger is reduced if the area where the bulb broke is well ventilated.
  
  

Spreading Mercury

• Broken bulbs should never be cleaned up with a vacuum cleaner, as that will cause the mercury to spread. You should scoop up all bulb pieces with an index card or similar hard piece of paper. You should wipe clean the area of the floor with a damp towel. It's a good idea to trim the carpet, cutting away the strands where the bulb broke, if there are children or pregnant women in the house. Once cleaned up, you must properly dispose of the bulb. Some home and furniture retailers provide disposal bins for fluorescent bulbs.
  
  

Lack of Knowledge

• The greatest danger may be that many people who use compact fluorescent bulbs are not aware of the proper methods of disposal. In most cases, these bulbs must be taken to special recycling facilities that handle dangerous toxins; these are the same facilities that handle the disposal of batteries. Most consumers, however, only throw burned out or broken bulbs in the trash, thus sending them into landfills and allowing the mercury to contaminate the soil and water.