Broken Mercury Light Bulb On Carpet

Collect the following materials to clean up the broken bulb.

Broken mercury light bulb on carpet.

Anything that rifles through the broken bits of your bulb is going to risk mercury contamination. Havepeople and pets leave the room. By comparison older thermometers contain a 500 milligrams of mercury. You ll also want to be sure not to use your vacuum as doing so will risk kicking mercury back up.

Stiff paper or cardboard sticky tape damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes for hard surfaces and an airtight container such as a glass jar with a metal lid or a resealable plastic bag. After you ve gathered what you need re enter the room where the cfl bulb was broken. Cfls contain mercury a potentially dangerous substance that escapes from broken cfls into the immediate surroundings and therefore the breakage of a cfl bulb should be handled by carefully. Airout the room for 5 10 minutes by opening a window or door to the outdoor.

Scoop up the larger pieces of glass from the floor. Leave the windows vents and doors to the outside open in order to continue to let the mercury vapor dissipate. Tiny mercury droplets will settle throughout the area increasing the spread of the mercury in the room. You can limit contamination by gathering up the large pieces of the broken bulb into a bag and set the bag outside.

As soon as the accident occurs. They will be harder to clean up. If the lamp broke on a carpet you can vacuum but it. The room should then be left to air out for an hour or so.

The most important steps to reduce exposure to mercury vapor from a broken bulb are. The droplets will evaporate faster and increase your chance of breathing high levels of mercury vapor. Place the shards into the glass jar or ziploc bag. Vacuum the area where the bulb was broken using the vacuum hose if available.

Broken fluorescent bulbs and lamps fluorescent bulbs and lamps including compact fluorescent lights cfls contain a very small amount of mercury sealed within the glass tubing an average of 5 milligrams about the amount that would cover the tip of a ballpoint pen.