CFL's and Mercury

When I was in Little Rock appearing on Morning Daybreak on KATV, the meteorologist on the show, Todd Yakoubian, began asking me about the mercury in CFL's. He was concerned that one environmental savior could cause another environmental disaster. I was a bit nervous that morning and was trying to keep my presentation in my head, so I don't feel as if I answered his questions well. So, I decided to blog about it.
Yes, mercury in CFL bulbs is a concern. Although it is a realtively small amount of mercury, only about 5 mgs. per bulb, it could lead to mercury pollution problems if the entire world began using CFL bulbs and not disposing of them properly. Like with many environmental things, including ethanol production, which helps us save energy by using less gas, there are downsides - increased corn production causes increased pesticide run-off, which is affecting pollution in the Gulf Coast.
Saving energy by using energy conserving bulbs leads to the re-introduction of mercury in our homes. I say re-introduction, because for at least 50 years, regular household thermometers contained mercury. I'm sure Todd is too young, but when I was in science class in school, the boys were always stealing the mercury stash used for experiments and playing with the beads. I'm not trying to minimize the risk, but I believe the risk of small amounts of mercury leaking (and it only leaks if the bulb is smashed), is smaller than the current energy crisis.
I would like to see a perfect solution to our energy problems, but even if we were to go back to life without electricity, there would be the problems caused by pollution from people using oil lamps and burning wood and coal.
There's no perfect solution.
CFL's are the best solution we have right now. They use 50-80% less energy than regular incandecent bulbs and a 13w CFL bulb, which is a 75w incandescent bulb, can save $45 on an energy bill over the life-time of the bulb, which is about 10,000 - 12,000 hours.
There is a new CFL bulb that has reduced the amount of mercury to 3.8 mg. Phillips Alto CFL Bulbs can be purchased through this website:
www.eartheasy.com
It is legal to dispose of CFL bulbs in your regular trash in most states. However, it is more environmentally friendly to treat them as hazardous household waste. Home Depot and Ikea stores will take spent CFL bulbs.
As well, most municipal landfills and recycling centers have special places for hazardous materials.
In the meantime, if you break a CFL bulb, follow the steps on the EPA website for proper clean up:
http://www.epa.gov/mercury/spills/index.htm#fluorescent

Todd's right, if we don't tackle these issues now, our children and grandchildren will be dealing with the ramifications later. Thanks, Todd, for the questions!