broken T5HO lamp and mercury

[lester]

I ordered some T5HO bulbs and they arrived broken. I'm mainly concerned with exposure to mercury but I cant find anything online about it. Do T5HO bulbs contain mercury dust or vapor? There is a powder in the packaging but I cant tell if its glass dust or what. Can anyone shed some light on this? Should I throw the fixture away too?

[Wasserpest]

Oh noooo... not another one of those threads.

I am surprised you can't find anything about that online! Well here is a good start: http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/cfl.asp

[robbob2112]

Originally Posted by lester

I ordered some T5HO bulbs and they arrived broken. I'm mainly concerned with exposure to mercury but I cant find anything online about it. Do T5HO bulbs contain mercury dust or vapor? There is a powder in the packaging but I cant tell if its glass dust or what. Can anyone shed some light on this? Should I throw the fixture away too?

All flourescent bulbs contain mercury... a single tiny tiny drop ... What you are seeing is the phosphor powder coating they put on the insides of the bulbs to change the light from ultraviolet to visible.

You wouldn't want to cut yourself with the broken glass from a bulb, but the amount of mecury is so small you don't need to worry about it. Some communities have a recycle place to dispose of old bulb, but most just tell you to throw them in the normal trash. No reason to throw away the fixture

Google "fluorescent bulb mercury exposure" and you will come up with all the information you might ever want.

[jinx©]

Keep the fixture...and dont snort the powder

[lemonlime]

The mercury is in a vapor form, 95% of it left when the tube broke.

[GIO590]

There is very little Mercury in a fluorescent light. Additionally although at room temperature mercury is volatile, it is a liquid. You will never see it in its solid form, at normal temperatures.