It will cost YOU more than $2,000 to clean up a broken curly light bulb.

It will cost YOU more than $2,000 to clean up a broken curly light bulb.
http://www.ehow.com/about_5044780_dangers-fluorescent-bulbs.html#ixzz1LhJ3f3ZA

Bridges' story - Brandy Bridges broke a recently purchased CFL bulb in her home and immediately contacted local safety officials, which led her up the public health ladder to the Maine Derpartment of Environmental Protection. In most areas of Bridges' home, DEP found mercury contamination well below the state's safe level of 300 nanograms per cubic meter. But at site of the bulb break, mercury levels jumped to more than 60 times the level considered safe. On her daughter's toys, the mercury level measured 556 ng/m3. She contacted an environmental cleanup company which told her it would cost more than $2,000 for the cleanup and her insurance company wouldn't pay for the replacement cost of the carpet, toys and furniture.

Dangerous stuff - According to the federal Department of Environmental Resources, mercury is categorized as "highly toxic" and harmful in both its liquid and vapor forms. Airborn mercury is highly toxic when inhaled. Outside, mercury presents little direct threat because it dissipates quickly. Indoors, mercury can reach dangerous levels from something as little as a broken thermometer or fluorescent light bulb.

Symptoms of mercury poisoning can include changes in personality, motor skills, vision and memory. Memory loss is particularly problematic because it may be permanent. In addition, short-term exposure to elemental mercury can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, lung irritation, increased blood pressure, and skin and eye irritation............

With an estimated four billion light receptacles in the United States and assuming the entire United States goes fluorescent, it would require about 643 square miles of landfill, 23 miles deep, to safely dispose of all the mercury contained in those four billion bulbs.

Why the USA decided to use these dangerous imported bulbs rather than allow the continued safe USA manufactured bulbs is really the question. "Someone" must have been paid a lot of money to betray "we the people".