trixel

I just went through a mini-hazmat incident in my own home.

I'm sitting at my computer and I hear a loud crash in the kitchen beside me. The wind blew two fluorescent tubes off my kitchen counter. Stupid place to leave them I know. So I'm sitting there, looking at the white powder curling up in this big dust explosion, thinking that maybe I shouldn't be sitting next to it.

Finally I move. Come back a couple minutes later and look up what to do when you break fluorescent tube lighting in your home. The instructions are scary. First off, DON'T use a vacuum except a hazmat vacuum. This will store the mercury and turn into a nice little gas cloud the next time you decide to hoover your rugs. Second, you can't sweep up the glass.... nooo. Brooms disperse the mercury. You have to get dampened papercloths and dab all the fragments and powder up. You musn't use hot water as this spreads the mercury. Apparently you are supposed to treat the area with sulphur. I didn't.

I did throw a buttload of papertowels, nitrile gloves, my rubber flipflops, my old broom and a severely old mop out into two large garbage bags on my balcony. I need to find carboard boxes to seal everything into and take it to a hazardous waste disposal unit.

Sadly, while I read everything else. I neglected to read that I was supposed to wait 15 minutes for the vapor to dissipate before clearing. I was in there in two minutes. Live and learn.

I wonder how many of you knew that fluorescent bulbs, even the small ones, are supposed to be treated as hazardous waste and shouldn't be thrown in waste disposals or garbage cans. It's true.