For your safety.
Taken from the Ohio EPA page:
Here are U.S. EPA’s guidelines for cleaning up a broken CFL:
1. Open a window and leave the room (restrict access) for at least 15 minutes. If you have fans, place the fans in the windows and blow the air out of the room. Note: If the room has no windows, open all doors to the room and windows outside the room and use fans to move the air out of the room and to the open windows.
2. Remove all materials you can without using a vacuum cleaner.
* Wear disposable rubber gloves, if available (do not use your bare hands).
* Carefully scoop up the fragments and powder with stiff paper or cardboard.
* Wipe the area clean with a damp paper towel or disposable wet wipe.
* Sticky tape (such as duct tape) can be used to pick up small pieces and powder.
3. Place all cleanup materials in a plastic bag and seal it, and then place in a second sealed plastic bag.
* If no other disposal or recycling options are available, private residents may dispose of the CFL in residential garbage. Be sure to seal the CFL in two plastic bags and put into the outside trash.
* Wash your hands after disposing of the bags.
4. The first time you vacuum the area where the bulb was broken, remove the vacuum bag once done cleaning the area (or empty and wipe the canister) and put the bag and/or vacuum debris, as well as the cleaning materials, in two sealed plastic bags in the outdoor trash or protected outdoor location for normal disposal.
To review in summary:
EVACUATE.
Restrict access for at least 15 minutes.
Set up fans and open all windows and doors.
Wear gloves.
Scoop with cardboard or stiff paper. (NOT a broom or vacuum!!).
Use sticky tape.
Then a damp cloth.
Place in a plastic bag.
Seal bag.
Place that inside ANOTHER bag.
Seal second bag.
Wash your hands.
Vacuum: remove vacuum bag immediately or empty the canister and wipe it all out.
Place bag or cleaning cloth in a plastic sealed bag.
Place that bag into another plastic sealed bag.
Simple as that...and mandatory after 2012 when incandescents are no longer manufactured and sold in Kentucky. (You know...those *other* light bulbs that you just twist out, toss, and replace...without rubber gloves.)
7 comments:
They should just cut out the middle man and burn any structure to the ground that has a cracked compact fluorescent. It would be easier to rebuild the structure than follow their procedure.
It probably won't happen in a household incident, but check your gold and gold plated items that were in the room. A lab where I once worked blew up a mercury manometer. Gold items (wedding rings, circuit boards, etc) that had a gold surface turned white from the mercury vapors in the air. Remember the high school chemistry stunt of turning your class ring silver by dipping it in a pot of mercury?
Al, that is interesting!!
I didn't know that would happen.
Ah, hell, just go take a deep breath, and open a vein with the jagged pieces , just for added insurance. The Earth will be healthier once we're all gone, right? It's for the ENVIRONMENT !!!
(Any word on what the enviro-weenies think about my Coleman-fuel lanterns?)
WV: funts: some people are always trying to kill the buzz.
Not me. You'll be reading about the old lady that died hoarding, not cats, but the "old fashioned" light bulbs :)
In actuality, pick up the damn bulb and throw it in the trash can. So there, Al Gore!
TooTall
RW, I think you're onto something...
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