After reading this thread I went and did my own research. The instructions gnu posted are pretty consistent with all sites I read about what to do if a cfl is broken. What is inflammatory is the implication that one will lose a limb due to mercury poisoning.

Mercury is highly toxic but won't cause one to lose a limb or cause necrotic rot of animal tissue.

There is significantly less mercury in a cfl than in a thermometer. Florescent lighting has been around a long time. It is good to know how to best deal with a broken florescent bulb and the potential for mercury poisoning.

You are not likely to die if a cfl does break and you fail to clean it up properly, nor are you likely to go 'mad as a hatter' from the amount of mercury contained, and then released by a broken cfl.

There is significantly less mercury in the new cfl bulbs than there is in the long tube florescent lights that most of us have worked under in offices for many, many years, and that most of us in older homes have over our kitchen sinks, and perhaps some bathroom sinks and counters.

I would have worded it much differently from guest, but if one can get beyond the intentionally insulting language, s/he is essentially correct. Everything comes with costs and benefits.

For me, when my son was young, the risks of having a mercury filled thermometer to take his temperature when he was ill did not outweigh the risks of not being able to monitor his temperature.

Many people do not like or can not adjust to the different quality of light provided by cfl's or led lights.

Not liking the quality of light is a separate issue from risk of toxicity.

Certainly, if weighing potential poison toxicity is one's only criteria for weighing the costs and benefits of cfl's, then one should avoid cfl's at all cost. For myself, I tend to weigh many factors in my own cost/benefit analyses. Just me, doesn't imply that if others don't there is something wrong with their paradigm. It is simply different from mine.

I have been in school or later worked where florescent lighting was the norm for 57 years. Have lived in houses with at least some florescent lighting for 50 years. In that time, I remember exactly 1 florescent tube breaking. Incandescent light bulbs are much more prone to breakage if knocked or jarred than are cfl's, but don't pose the hazard of toxicity if they do.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned that might be a factor with cfl's and their much longer life, is that there is a greater chance that moisture caused rust or corrosion could make it more difficult to unscrew the bulb when it does burn out, and that could increase the chance of breakage.

In the fwiw department, I started using cfl bulbs 5 years ago. None of them have burned out yet. Will say that I am one of those folks who only turns a light on when I really need it, and promptly turns it off when I don't really need it. Probably much more conservative in my usage than the average householder.

gnu, I appreciate the reminder regarding the hazards of florescent lights and how to deal with breakage. Knowledge that there is something more hazardous than simply broken glass when one does break hovered in the back of my mind but it has been so long since been so long since I was exposed to a broken florescent light that I had forgotten exactly what the hazard is and how to deal with it. Since I now have more florescent lighting in my home, the odds of breakage, while still slim since I don't have a kid or a crazy cat, are higher than they were when all I lived with was 1 or 2 florescent tubes.

Thanks for the reminder and I will be printing out instructions on what to do if one does break.