Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs Are Deadly According to the EPA

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Congress is getting real close to banning Tommy Edison’s favorite invention, the electric light bulb. In its place, all Americans are supposed to use glass bottles filled with poison, which, if broken, can shut down a school, government office, hospital or public gathering.

Thanks to Moonbattery for pointing to the EPA.Gov website which instructs us to throw away our mattresses if a light bulb breaks on it and to throw away carpeting and clothing too. You can’t wash your clothes, they explain, because it would poison the sewer system. Damn, and here I have been flushing my broken CFL’s down the toilet.

Clean-up Steps for Carpeting or Rug

• Carefully pick up glass fragments and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
• Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.
• If vacuuming is needed after all visible materials are removed, vacuum the area where the bulb was broken.
• Remove the vacuum bag (or empty and wipe the canister), and put the bag or vacuum debris in a sealed plastic bag.

Clean-up Steps for Clothing, Bedding and Other Soft Materials

• If clothing or bedding materials come in direct contact with broken glass or mercury-containing powder from inside the bulb that may stick to the fabric, the clothing or bedding should be thrown away. Do not wash such clothing or bedding because mercury fragments in the clothing may contaminate the machine and/or pollute sewage.
• You can, however, wash clothing or other materials that have been exposed to the mercury vapor from a broken CFL, such as the clothing you are wearing when you cleaned up the broken CFL, as long as that clothing has not come into direct contact with the materials from the broken bulb.
• If shoes come into direct contact with broken glass or mercury-containing powder from the bulb, wipe them off with damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes. Place the towels or wipes in a glass jar or plastic bag for disposal.

Hey kids! You want to get out of school for a day? Don’t phone in a bomb threat! Just break one of those stupid Al Gore light bulbs at the doorway to the school and tell a teacher, and she’ll shut down the whole school until it gets cleaned up.

Want to disrupt annoying hippie anti-war protests? Smash a couple of these mercury filled eco-friendly light bulbs at their feet. Threaten to wash the debris down the sewer and watch them drop their signs and pick up the mess.

And the next time any dolt complains about mercury in the water, blame Al Gore and his stupid light bulbs for poisoning the water. That will shut them up.