I just watched a demonstration on The Doctors show on TV about how to dispose of a broken smart bulb. In the old days they were made of glass and metal. Both are inert materials that are harmless to people and wildlife. They were OK to put in a landfill.
Smart bulbs contain mercury, in both dry and vapor form. Here is the official approved procedure: Upon breakage, shut off all fans, heaters or air conditioners. Open up all the widows and doors. Everyone must leave the house. They must stay out at least a half hour.
Anyone entering after that, to clean the mess, must be wearing gloves and a particle mask. You are not allowed to use your vacuum cleaner. It will put mercury in the air and then that bag gets thrown or emptied into the trash and will contaminate the landfills. You take two pieces of thin cardboard (like a dress box) and scoop up all of the debris you can. It goes into a zip-lock baggie. Then you take duct tape and dab up the rest of what you can. If the break happens over a carpet or a hard floor the procedure is the same. Now your gloves, mask, tape and cardboard goes into the baggie and that all goes into a second zip-lock baggie. The entire package must be taken to a place that accepts hazardous waste.
I guess I was lulled to sleep about this. Why did it become a federal mandate if they knew all this? I”ve talked so many people who did not know this procedure. They are as shocked as I am. I”m guessing that too many people across America are not going to follow the correct procedure. Our homes and our landfills will slowly be contaminated with mercury.
Imagine vacating your home in the middle of a stormy night or in searing heat. What about people in hospital beds and wheelchairs? What about sleepy kids and crying babies? If you open up windows and doors for any extended time, you”ll use a lot of energy to bring your house back to normal room temperature. Are you ever going to let infants or pets play on the carpet after a breakage? Are you going to divulge to a perspective buyer that there was a mercury contamination in your home? What happens in tornado alley where a thousand bulbs can be smashed in one neighborhood in one instant? Will it affect rescue efforts and clean-up?
If the justification for the smart bulb is that contamination is worth the small energy savings multiplied by the number of bulbs that will be used in America, then the argument can be made for a mandate ending the use of pens and going to all pencils to save metal, plastic and oil and manufacturing energy, a mandate banning the use of zippers and going to all buttons to save brass and energy, a mandate banning the use of clothes dryers and requiring clotheslines to save metal and energy. Will we let the federal government mis-micro-manage the trivia in our lives just to save a dollar?
Frank Carini
Lake County
