One of my fluorescent lights just broke now over my minnow tank! I believe I accidentally inhaled some of the mercury vapor and I may have got it on my skin as well. I'm going to shower and do a big w/c and open up all the windows in the room; is there anything else I need to do? I feel alright but I am royally p*ssed and will be returning the lamp. How should I package it? Any help is appreciated; what kind of luck amy I having these days? <_<

Edit: It didn't break directly over the tank and I didn't notice any pieces fall in but I'm changing almost all the water as a precaution. Is the hood still useable? How could I clean it? There's no visible mercury on it AFAIK.

Ralph! Call the Poison Control Hotline NOW!
Here is their number: 1-800-222-1222
Ask them what you need to do about yourself first.

CALL THEM!!! PLEASE!!!!

Don't make me come to your house!!

I called! I called!

The guy on the line basically said to open out the doors and windows but other than that there's nothing that actually *can* be done. What kind of a POS light bulb breaks like that? I *touched* it with a single finger and it cracked and started smoking all over. :angry:

Thank you very much for being concerned. I am so irritated and want to return the bulb but I may just throw the darn thing away because I don't want to contaminate my backpack while carrying it back to Wal-mart.

Good. I am glad you called them cause I HATE to fly. :)

I don't know anything about what you have going on there with that bulb or the hood. We have had florescent lights here in the shop break (the big 4 footers) and we figured that they must have been either damaged during shipment or a factory flaw.
Can you put the bulb in a big zip lock bag and the wrap with newspaper to protect your backpack? I don't know how large it is. :unsure: Maybe somebody else will know.
Good luck!

I may try that. I called up the store and they said I can fill out some kind of liability or complaint form or something which I think I will do.

These bulbs are a little strange. They're fluorescents, but they fit in incandescent light sockets. I have a long fluorescent light strip on my goldfish tank that has never caused any trouble so maybe these are poor quality and more delicate? I may just use incandescent lights for my incandescent hoods (on my 10-gallons). They warm the water a bit, but not much, and they don't look as good but I'd rather have a little yellowed light instead of stuff like this. :o

I changed just about *all* the water in the tank as a precaution. I may do it again later on.

Ralph

Here is a link to the EPA recommendations for fluorescent lightbulb breakage cleanup:

Fluorescent Light Breakage- EPA Website

Don

thanks for the help! I turned off the a/c and pulled some dust off the carpet with tape. It's a bit late I s'pose but it can't hurt.

My chemist boss laughs at all the hopla made over the mercury in light bulbs. That's not to say it's not prudent to take precautions because it is. Liquid mercury is not a big danger as it stays in one place and can easily be cleaned up with the right stuff. Mercury vapor is highly toxic. The amount of mercury released from breaking a light bulb is very small. It usually doesn't require calling out a hazmat team. You've already done more than was needed.

Why did the lamp break? You said you just touched it. Was the bulb on at the time? Was it hot? Was your finger cold or wet? Even if you touch a hot bulb with a wet finger, it still shouldn't blow up.

You can try to pack it in some bubble wrap if you want to return it. Be sure to put a warning on it that there's broken glass in there. I wouldn't bother though. I've not had good luck convincing stores to give me money back on things I want to return due to defects.

Unless you see something on the hood, just rinsing it should be enough.

What happened was I was testing the bulb (while it was on, but with dry fingers and all) to see if it was getting hot, since the top of the hood seemed warm. When I touched it, one of its 4 chambers "exploded", more or less. I know it sounds a little fishy (NPI) but that's basically what happened. It put out smoke and unfortunately I inhaled some of the smoke (nasty stuff! it's like burning Prime and cigarettes) before I could get the hood outside and open up the windows.

Glad the hood can be salvaged. It's not a very good one but it was a little expensive at $20.

I'm wondering if you may have an electrical issue in your hood?

At my work facility we were required years ago to place every fluorescent light bulb in the plant into plastic sleves with end caps by our Quality department head since we were required to be Mercury free for some goverment contracts. The amount of mercury contained in one bulb is like Robin said very minute. After a short time the plastic (from the heat of the bulb degraded)and if dropped would would shatter thus not providing little if any protection. The plastic also caused premature bulb failure thus more frequent bulb replacement which raised the chances of broken bulbs. From what I understand the amount of mercury in the standard 4 ft bulbs has been greatly reduced if not elimated in the last decade. It all made little if any practical sence to me. <_<

FM3