Introduction
In the past decade, the University of Washington Seattle campus has replaced a lot of general lighting with fluorescent light tubes (FLTs) on the Seattle campus. Now, UW Facilities Services and Housing and Food Services are working with Seattle City Light to replace all desk lamps with compact fluorescent lights (CFLs.) Fluorescent lights use 20 to 30% of the electricity of incandescent lamps, and they last much longer. Also, CFLs can be recycled (incandescent lamps are not recyclable.)
Fluorescent lamps contain a small amount of mercury, which presents a small risk of exposure if they break. Handle lamps carefully, and never place any lamp, whole or broken, in the trash.
Recycling used lamps
If a fluorescent light tube goes out, do not change it yourself. At UW Seattle, you may request a lamp change from Facilities Services. At other locations, contact your local Facilities Services or maintenance departments. They will recycle the bulbs for you.
If you are on the Seattle campus and have a burnt out CFL, call Facilities Services at 5-8815 to request a pickup. They will recycle it for you.
Cleaning up broken lamps
Fluorescent lamps contain a small amount of mercury. If the lamp is broken, some of the mercury will still adhere to the lamp’s glass fragments, especially if the lamp is not hot. The rest of the mercury is released into the air, where it will dissipate fairly quickly.
Do not use a vacuum cleaner or broom and dustpan to clean up the area. Both methods will release more mercury into the air and contaminate more items. Instead, do the following:
Ventilate the area by opening windows and leaving ventilation systems running, and leave the area for 15 minutes before returning to begin the cleanup. Keep people away from the area until the cleanup is complete.
Wear thick gloves to protect your hands from the sharp glass and the mercury powder. Also find a glass or plastic jar with a lid or a sturdy plastic bag.
Carefully pick up pieces of glass and place them in the jar or bag. Next, using two stiff pieces of paper, scoop up the smaller glass pieces and put them in the jar or bag. Then pat the area with the sticky side of duct, masking or packing tape to pick up fine particles and dust. Finally, wipe the area with a wet wipe or damp paper towel. Put all waste and materials into the jar or bag.
When you are done, wash your hands and face. Continue ventilating the room for several hours.
Label the container as "hazardous waste - broken fluorescent lamp" or fill out a UW hazardous waste sticker. Fill out and fax or mail in a Chemical Collection Request and EH&S will pick it up for you.
If a rug, shoes, clothing, or other porous surfaces were contaminated with bulb fragments, consider disposing of them as hazardous waste. If this is not an option, contact EH&S at 206.543.0467 for advice and mercury monitoring.
Health effects of fluorescent lamps
Fluorescent lamps do not present a large risk of exposure to mercury. CFLs contain on average about 4 milligrams of mercury in them. When a bulb is broken, airborne mercury quickly dissipates and the rest of the mercury sticks to the glass shards unless disturbed. If you avoid breathing the initial puff of mercury vapor and follow the instructions above for cleanup, your exposure should be negligible.
Burnt out bulbs do not release mercury unless the glass bulb is broken. They may occasionally release a burnt smell when they burn out, but this is due to overheating of the plastic body.
Environmental impacts of fluorescent lamps
While fluorescent lamps are not the perfect solution for saving energy due to the fact they contain a small amount of mercury, their impact on the environment is very small compared to that of other mercury sources. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that even if all 290 million CFL bulbs purchased in 2007 were sent to the landfill and broken open, they would have contributed only 0.1 percent of the total U.S. mercury emissions that year.
Larger sources include coal-fired power plants and industries such as metals smeltering and chlorine production, which uses mercury to electrolyze chlorine out of brine solutions. Actual emissions of mercury to the environment are much lower because recycling the bulbs is so common. The University of Washington recycles all fluorescent lamps,
which means that the mercury is collected and reused instead of released to the environment.
In addition, CFLs use less energy than incandescent bulbs and therefore contribute less to climate change. And, because they on average last ten times longer than incandescent bulbs, they use less resources to create and recycle. Incandescent lamps are not currently recycleable.
Top
| 
