Is a broken fluorescent lamp dangerous? What to do if a fluorescent lamp breaks: procedure
Dear Oleg! If a fluorescent lamp (which contains mercury) breaks, then you need to do the same when a mercury thermometer breaks - carefully collect the mercury, I would advise using a regular syringe with a rubber tip for this, or, if you have one with a plastic tip, you need to remove it and use the remaining bulb to “pull” the mercury inside. Ventilate the room thoroughly, because Mercury vapor is very harmful. And treat the surface on which the mercury has come into contact (see below). You need to know that lamps containing mercury belong to hazard class 1 waste, i.e. considered to be very dangerous. Therefore, you cannot throw them, even if they are not broken, but simply out of order, into a general trash can. I usually do the following - I call the housing office and ask where to take what’s left of the lamp. Some housing offices at the place of residence themselves accept mercury lamps, and then transfer them to organizations that dispose of them according to instructions (a license must be issued for this), and some housing offices, if they do not have a special container, must tell them where, to which organization in your district hazardous waste must be disposed of.
Here is the opinion of experts from Ecotrom
(for reference - Research and production enterprise "EKOTROM" is a laureate of the Moscow government award in the field of environmental protection (2004) and the competition "100 best environmental organizations in Russia" (2007), winner of the GRAND PRIX of the 1st All-Russian competition "ECOLOGY" RUSSIA" (2008), member of the "Guild of Ecologists"):
“If an ordinary fluorescent lamp containing from 20 to 150 (mg) of mercury breaks, over 11 thousand tiny mercury balls are formed, having a total surface of 3.53 cm2. This is enough to contaminate a room with a volume of 300 thousand m3(*). In the case of a smaller room volume, mercury pollution can reach tens and even hundreds of maximum permissible concentrations (the maximum permissible concentration of mercury in the air is 0.0003 mg/m3)." www ecotrom ru
Here's what Wikipedia says about this:
"In the event of a mercury spill, it is necessary (paragraphs 3,4,5,6 are especially important):
1. Close access to the premises and remove everyone from the premises.
2. Report the incident to the local authorities of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and ask specialists to come. This is necessary even with a small spill of mercury, for example, when a thermometer or fluorescent lamp breaks, since without the appropriate equipment it is impossible to be sure that all the metal will be removed. Even a small dose of mercury indoors has a negative effect on the body.
3. Organize intensive ventilation of the room.
4.Carry out mechanical collection of mercury.
The easiest way to collect mercury is using an ordinary syringe. The collected mercury must be placed in a container with water, and the remains of the thermometer must be carefully collected in the same container. Never use a vacuum cleaner to collect mercury. Firstly, the vacuum cleaner heats up and increases the evaporation of mercury, and secondly, air passes through the engine of the vacuum cleaner, and an amalgam is formed on the engine parts, which are made of non-ferrous metals, after which the vacuum cleaner itself becomes a distributor of mercury vapor. Droplets of mercury can be collected using paper napkins soaked in regular sunflower oil. The mercury beads will stick to the oily area.
You can also soak newspaper in water and apply the resulting slurry to the site of the mercury spill. then carefully collect the pulp in a container with water. When stirred, the paper will float and the mercury will settle to the bottom.
If mercury gets on the carpet or carpeting, then you need to carefully roll up the carpet, from the periphery to the center, so that the mercury balls do not scatter throughout the room. It is advisable to place the carpet in a whole plastic bag or simply wrap it in plastic film, also from the periphery to the center, and take it outside. Then hang up the carpet or carpeting, and lay a cellophane film underneath it to prevent mercury from contaminating the soil and knock out the carpet with gentle blows. You should also let the carpet or rug hang and air outside.
5. Do not take the shoes in which you walked around the room where mercury was spilled outside this room, and if you take it out, then only in a plastic bag or sealed container, since particles of mercury attach to your feet and you can spread mercury throughout the apartment .
6. Carry out chemical demercurization (removal of mercury).
A. Treat the surface with a warm soap-soda solution (400 g of soap, 500 g of soda per 10 liters of water)
B. The most effective and most harmless and affordable way to demercurize premises is as follows: walls and floors are treated with a 1% iodine solution (per 1 liter of water, 10 ml of a 10% iodine solution, which is sold in a pharmacy). After 30 minutes, the area is treated with the following solution: copper sulfate CuSO4 (30 g of copper sulfate per 1 liter of water) - buy at home. store, sodium sulfite Na2SO3 7H2O (180 g per 1 liter of water) (can be bought at a photo store) and sodium bicarbonate NaHCO3 (baking soda, 40 g per 1 liter of water). The solution is prepared in the following way: first, copper sulfate and sodium sulfite are mixed with water until the precipitate is completely dissolved, and then baking soda is added.
Mercury presence indication
Indication of the degree of contamination is carried out using palladium indicator paper, as well as using special instruments. Old devices of the AGP series (AGP - 01; AGP - 01 M, etc.). Now measurements are carried out using a more modern device RA 915+."
Energy-saving lamps can be found in every apartment today. Many, in pursuit of savings, completely abandon simple incandescent lamps and install only energy-saving ones. However, not everyone knows what is inside these lamps and why they are dangerous. And inside them there is mercury, and in a gaseous state. When sealed, the lamp is safe for health and use. But as soon as you accidentally break it, all the mercury will end up in the air, inside your apartment.
What is the danger of damage to an energy-saving lamp?
In high-quality foreign lamps, mercury is usually contained in a special bound state, in the form of a so-called amalgam. And when the lamp breaks, mercury in contact with air should not spread in space. Chinese analogues, if damaged, pose a real danger. One light bulb can contain up to five milligrams of mercury. For comparison, for example, a thermometer contains only 2 mg of mercury. And since it is in a gaseous state in the lamp, its distribution in the air occurs very quickly.
The minimum safe daily dose of mercury for one person is 0.0003 mg/m3.
Thus, if an energy-saving light bulb containing 5 mg of mercury breaks in your room with an area of 20-30 m2, the concentration of this dangerous substance in the room will exceed the permissible value hundreds of times!
Types of mercury lamps
Here are the types of lamps that contain mercury:
- ⚡ Energy saving lamp - 5 mg
- ⚡ DRL lamps - up to 350 mg
- ⚡ Fluorescent lamp in the form of a tube - 45-65 mg
- ⚡ Outdoor high-pressure lamp DRT - up to 600 mg
- ⚡ Neon tube – 10mg
With prolonged inhalation of mercury vapor, damage to the nervous system can occur; with large doses of poisoning, deaths are possible. The most dangerous case is when the light bulb is depressurized, but does not break, and you consider it simply burned out and throw it in the trash.
As a result, your body will gradually accumulate mercury over a long period of time, the vapors of which will be present in the air of your apartment.
Therefore, all overheated, broken, non-working energy-saving lamps should be immediately thrown into specially designed containers, and not stored at home.
Procedure
What to do if you break an energy-saving lamp?
- ⚡ first, ask your family and friends to leave the apartment immediately. The less people breathe contaminated air, the better.
- ⚡ close the door in the room where the light bulb broke and open all the windows in the house for at least 10-15 minutes. Your task is to reduce the concentration of mercury vapor
- ⚡ collect the pieces from the light bulb
Put on a damp gauze bandage and use rubber gloves, paper towels, an old sponge, that is, everything that you don’t mind throwing away along with the glass. Do not remove debris with a vacuum cleaner.
If the fragments fell on a rug or carpet, then it must be taken outside, an oilcloth laid under the carpet and then knocked out. Oilcloth with splinters is of course thrown away, and the carpet will need to be ventilated for a long time.
Demercurization
Now it is necessary to neutralize the effects of mercury in the place where the lamp was broken - this process is scientifically called demercurization. To do this, it is necessary to make a disinfectant composition from the means available at hand in the household. You can use what you have in your home: potassium permanganate, ordinary baking soda, whiteness and iodine.
Option 1 - Dilute 2 grams of potassium permanganate in a liter jar of water. Moisten the area where the broken lamp hit with the resulting solution. After 7 hours, wash off the solution with soapy water.
Option 2 - Add 40 grams of soda to 1 liter of water and mix with soap solution. Treat the surface with this composition.
Option 3 - If the surface area is large, use bleach. Take a liter of “Whiteness” and stir it in 5 liters of water. Treat the infected area with this liquid.
Option 4 - If the surface area on which the lamp broke is small, you can use iodine. Dilute 100 ml of iodine in a liter jar of water and moisten the surface with this composition.
It is better not to flush used solutions down the toilet, and also dispose of them along with the lamp.
By wetting the damaged area of the lamp with the solution, you thereby neutralize the volatile properties of mercury. This treatment needs to be done over several days. Be sure to use protective rubber gloves when cleaning.
If you have broken not one, but several lamps at the same time, for example, packaging due to careless handling or a fall from a height, then you need to contact specialists and do not hesitate to call the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
As discussed above, broken and unusable energy-saving lamps should not be thrown into ordinary household trash bins. In large cities today, there are already enough special containers for the disposal of such waste. What to do if there is no such container near where you live? In this case, it may be advisable to seek help from some large, nearby enterprise. Typically, environmental supervision obliges such offices to enter into contracts for the disposal of mercury-containing lamps and to have specialized containers on their territory. Ask them for the opportunity to use this container.
The thermometer is broken, the whole apartment is running around looking for a broom and dustpan to collect the mercury. And she has already turned into balls and runs away under the bed, then under the table, then somewhere else. And you all run and run after her. But when you screw an energy-saving lamp into a socket, and it accidentally slips out of your hands and falls, for unknown reasons, no one panics. But it would be worth worrying about the lamp more than about the thermometer. In addition to small fragments, there are also many harmful and negative aspects. And the worst thing is mercury vapor. So, let us exhale, calm down, put aside panic, and we begin.
The first thing to start with when talking about the consequences of a broken fluorescent lamp is mercury. I hasten to please you that there is no free mercury in an energy-saving lamp. For those who don’t know, or simply forgot, free mercury is a liquid, silver-colored metal. The lamp does not contain the same amount of mercury. There is evaporated mercury, or more precisely, mercury vapor. They are very harmful, because when the lamp breaks, it goes straight into the respiratory tract and is absorbed into the body through the lungs.
Now take a deep breath. One lamp, depending on the power, contains from 0.1 to 0.5 grams of mercury. As I said earlier, it is contained in the form of vapor. And steam is the most harmful thing. The mercury that became balls after breaking the thermometer can be collected. It is most convenient to use regular wide tape or children's plasticine. But how will you collect pairs? They can be ventilated. It is fair to say that this is not some kind of fatal dose of mercury, but it may be poisoning. The main thing is not to forget that everyone’s body is different, and, accordingly, everyone’s immunity is different. And some may not have anything, but others will be poisoned. So you need to be careful.
Now I propose to delve a little into anatomy and talk about the impact directly on the body. And, no less important, about the consequences of such exposure. The consequences can be very different. First, let's look at the possible options for poisoning.
The most dangerous variant of mercury vapor poisoning is acute poisoning. With this option, a large amount of mercury vapor enters the human body over a short period. If poisoning occurs, the consequences will not be long in coming. A couple of hours and the primary signs of poisoning will appear. And they are very diverse. From abdominal pain to bloody diarrhea, from pneumonia to swollen gums, nausea and vomiting. Most often the temperature rises to at least thirty-eight degrees. In case of particularly severe poisoning, death is possible. But let's not talk about sad things. This is actually not a common occurrence. Most likely, a broken light bulb will not poison you, but no one has canceled safety precautions. The last thing you want to do is break a hot energy-saving fluorescent lamp. The most dangerous fumes are hot ones, so it is not recommended to break a lamp that has just been turned off. According to statistics, mercury poisoning occurs extremely rarely in domestic conditions, but, I repeat, you need to be careful not to become one of the sad statistics.
The next two types of poisoning have nothing to do with a broken lamp at all, but it is useful to know about it. At a minimum, to know how to act in such a situation. The first of these is chronic mercury vapor poisoning. It occurs as a result of prolonged exposure to vapors with a slight excess of mercury content. This impact can last up to several years. And it affects the central nervous system. Depending on the type of lesion, symptoms appear. It could simply be fatigue, drowsiness or apathy. In more severe forms, the effect on the brain is manifested, and this is bad. There may be memory loss and severe tremors in the limbs.
The second form is micromercurialism. This poisoning occurs gradually. As a rule, the body is constantly exposed to a tiny concentration of mercury vapor over a very long period of time. Long before the appearance of primary symptoms, the ability to smell is sharply reduced. Signs of such poisoning include decreased performance, drowsiness, apathy and memory loss. This general poisoning of the body also leads to a reduction in immunity. Most often, such poisoning occurs in those who work in mercury-related industries and neglect safety measures. But the reasons may be different, and such poisoning is possible in domestic conditions. Especially in cases where the mercury from the broken thermometer was not carefully removed. It can lie in the folds of the parquet, evaporate and slowly poison you.
Now, I think everyone is interested in learning about precautions and safety measures. It might also be interesting to know what to do if a thermometer or lamp breaks. So at the end of the article we’ll talk about this. You checked the temperature. Everything is fine with my health. But, while putting the thermometer in its case, it jumped out of my hands and... Well, in general, it broke. Mercury rolls around in balls on the floor, what should I do? First of all, don't panic. Panic is bad and, in general, this is the lot of the weak. The first thing to do is open the window and close the door. It is necessary to ventilate the room for a couple of hours, without creating a draft, as this can spread the fumes throughout the apartment. It is also worth restricting people’s access to the site of the thermometer’s terrorist attack. Under no circumstances use a broom or vacuum cleaner to collect mercury. Will be worse. In this situation, tape and children's plasticine are our everything. They will stick the mercury to themselves, rather than chase it from corner to corner.
Now about the terrorism that a fluorescent lamp can cause. She crashed, but it's easier to cope with. Firstly, there is four times less mercury in the lamp. But the downside is that, unlike a thermometer, the lamp does not contain metal, but its vapor. It is worth expelling everyone from the room in which the sabotage occurred. Just like with a thermometer, in no case should you create a draft. In this situation he is even more dangerous. If possible, you will need a jar, preferably with a solution of potassium permanganate. A jar of water will also work. You need to collect all the fragments that you can collect with your hands and take them for disposal. If this is not possible, you need to pack it well and throw it away. Then vacuum or wipe the floor with a wet cloth. After the room has been ventilated, it can be considered that the danger has passed.
Energy-saving lamps are so popular today that they are found in almost every apartment, this is due to economic considerations. However, the design of these lamps requires compliance with special disposal rules if the energy-saving lamp breaks in the room. The fact is that light bulbs contain mercury, and the primary task is to neutralize possible harm to the health of others.
Broken energy-saving lamp: is it dangerous?
The operating principle of energy-saving lamps requires the use of mercury vapor elements inside the bulb. After applying voltage to the electrodes of the device, electrons are released, and when they interact with mercury atoms, ultraviolet radiation appears. Mercury amalgam is dangerous class 1.
It should be noted that the white inner coating of the bulb, which sometimes spills out of broken lamps, is not mercury, but a phosphor. It serves as a filter for ultraviolet radiation.
Mercury in energy-saving lamps can cause a range of moderate to severe health effects. Instantly spreading throughout the apartment, it enters the body and affects, first of all, the functioning of the nervous system.
Symptoms of mild human mercury poisoning:
- headache;
- dizziness;
- bouts of vomiting;
- general weakness;
- nausea;
- temperature rise;
- digestive and stool disorders.
If a person has suffered severe mercury poisoning, the following symptoms appear:
- severe rolling pain in the head;
- impaired consciousness, delusional states;
- dysfunction of the central nervous system;
- damage to organs and respiratory tract.
Children and pregnant women are most vulnerable to the negative effects of mercury vapor. One broken lamp, of course, is not capable of causing death to a person, but slight deterioration of the condition may occur. Therefore, it is important to know what to do in such a situation to minimize the damage.
How much mercury do lamps contain?
The exact amount of mercury that is added to the lamp during production depends on the specific model and is indicated by the manufacturer on the packaging. As a rule, devices for household lamps in an apartment contain no more than 5 mg of the chemical element. Russian manufacturing companies add the metal itself to the flasks, while European ones add mercury alloy amalgam. Mercury is safe for humans in solid and liquid form, but has an extremely low boiling point and quickly turns into vapor.
Energy-saving lamps are produced not only for domestic use, but their bulbs have different volumes, so the mercury content differs:
- household lamp with a traditional screw base – up to 5-7 mg;
- tubular – up to 65 mg;
- high pressure DRT lamps for street use – up to 600 mg;
- mercury arc lamp – up to 350 mg;
- neon tube – up to 10 mg.
Limit concentration of mercury vapor
To understand how dangerous the spread of toxic mercury vapors in a room is to health, you need to assess the extent to which their concentration goes beyond acceptable limits. They are established by hygienic standards 2.1.5.1338-03 “MPC” of pollutants in the atmospheric air of populated areas.” The document states that mercury vapors and compounds do not cause damage to human health and do not affect his descendants if the concentration of the substance does not exceed 0.0003 mg/m 3 .
Thus, if in an apartment with an area of 50 m2 with a ceiling height of 3 meters, an energy-saving lamp with 5 mg of mercury in the bulb breaks, its concentration will be:
5 mg/60m2 *3m=0.02778 mg/m3.
This figure is almost 93 times higher than the limit established by the standards. Of course, the concentration decreases very quickly if you quickly start ventilating the room.
Hazard Control Measures
Mechanical cleaning
To ensure safe operation of the room in which the energy-saving lamp was broken, it is necessary to carry out a set of measures to clean it from vapors and mechanical residues of the product:
- A responsible adult must take on the job of cleaning the apartment or premises. Everyone else needs to leave the affected area, taking their pets with them.
- To avoid the spread of contaminated air, the door of the room is tightly closed, and to reduce the concentration of toxic substances, windows, vents and a balcony (if there is one) are opened wide.
- The next step is to clean up the parts and shards of the lamp. It is extremely important to avoid contact with fragments and particles of the flask with bare hands - work is carried out exclusively with latex or rubber gloves. To collect the fragments, it is better to take a kitchen sponge, towel, rag, cardboard or paper. It is better not to use a vacuum cleaner or any other valuable items, because they will have to be disposed of after cleaning.
- The collected fragments must be placed in a bag made of dense material. It should be fastened and ensure tight storage.
- The surface on which the fragments were located is wiped with a damp towel. It is also sent in a sealed bag, where the fragments were poured.
- If lamp particles fall on furniture, pillows or other soft household items, they should also be placed in sealed bags. In the future, it is necessary to conduct an examination for the content of harmful metals in order to understand whether you can continue to use them or throw them away.
- If splinters are scattered on the carpet, it should be taken outside and thoroughly beaten out. The blows must be applied to the reverse surface. In this case, the surface under the knockout platform should be lined with an old oilcloth, sheet, tablecloth or blanket. The fragments are dangerous for the environment, so they must be collected in this way for further use. After beating, the carpet should be ventilated for a long time, reducing the concentration of toxic substances.
At this stage, measures have been taken to mechanically clean the premises. All fragments and the materials with which they were collected must be disposed of in a special container, which must be installed in each populated area. Throwing mercury waste into ordinary trash cans worsens the environment and increases the risk of injury to people and animals.
Demercurization
After mechanical cleaning, the room in which the energy-saving light bulb has broken must be demercurized. This means neutralizing mercury compounds and vapors. The procedure involves cleaning the room using special solutions. You can prepare them at home using one of the following recipes:
- dissolve 2 grams of potassium permanganate in 1 liter of water;
- dissolve 400 grams of soda and soap solution in a 10-liter bucket of water. A chlorine-containing product like “Belizna” is suitable as a replacement for soda;
- Dissolve 100 ml of iodine in 1 liter of water. This option is more suitable for objects with a large affected area.
The resulting mixtures are used to treat surfaces in the room where the accident occurred. Particular care should be taken to wipe hidden cavities and hard-to-reach areas such as cracks between floorboards. It is recommended to keep the solution on the surface for several hours, and carry out the mercury neutralization procedure daily for 3-4 days. Naturally, to maintain health, you need to protect your hands with rubber gloves.
If a fluorescent lamp breaks, after disposing of the fragments, you can contact a company that does this professionally for demercurization services. Moreover, specialists will use special means for treatment that are more effective in neutralization. In addition, such companies help measure the concentration of mercury vapor in the air after treatment and determine whether objects that were exposed to fragments after a lamp rupture are suitable for use.
In modern society, energy-saving light bulbs have almost completely replaced conventional ones. They are used everywhere - at home, in various industries, in offices. Without a doubt, energy-saving light bulbs have a number of advantages. But there is still one clear disadvantage - they break when dropped or hit. And this is very dangerous for people around.
Therefore, the question of what to do if an energy-saving light bulb breaks is very relevant for most users. Is this situation dangerous for others and what to do if an energy-saving lamp breaks, you can find out from this article.
How dangerous is this situation?
This situation cannot be called pleasant, but if a person breaks such a lamp, you should not panic or call specialists. True, this statement is relevant if this happened with one lamp. But if several of them crashed at once, this is already a serious reason to call for help. After all, inside such a device there is mercury almagama , that is, mercury vapor. This substance is classified as hazard class 1. This substance is located inside the tube. Accordingly, it comes out when the tube breaks or its integrity is compromised.
Very often people confuse the mercury filling and the luminescent coating inside the glass tube. During operation, this coating may fall off inside the lamp. If this happens, there is no need to worry, because only after the integrity of the lamp is damaged, mercury evaporates from the lamp.
Anyone who uses such lamps should understand what mercury is and why it is dangerous. Mercury is one of the elements of the periodic table. This metal is dangerous to health and life, as its fumes provoke poisoning. Its severity depends on how long and in what quantities a person inhaled such fumes.
When poisoned by mercury vapor, poisoning develops, in which a person experiences hand tremors, dysfunction of the nervous system, and gingivitis. Such manifestations are characteristic of chronic poisoning. In acute poisoning, when a person inhales high concentration vapors, weakness, abdominal pain, , vomit.
Symptoms of acute poisoning develop several hours after exposure to mercury. At first, a person feels weakness, headache, a metallic taste in the mouth and discomfort when swallowing. There is increased salivation, bleeding and swelling of the gums, nausea and vomiting. Then very severe pain in the abdomen develops, and severe diarrhea mixed with blood is tormented. The development of an inflammatory process in the lungs, severe chills, cough, etc. is likely. Body temperature may rise, sometimes reaching values close to 40°C. When conducting tests, a large amount of mercury is detected in the urine. In both adults and children, the symptoms of poisoning manifest themselves in the same way. However, in a baby, symptoms of poisoning develop faster, his clinical picture is more pronounced, so he needs to be helped as quickly as possible.
If there is chronic , a person cannot lead a normal life. Mercury vapor is most dangerous for young children and expectant mothers. Provided that a pregnant woman is severely poisoned by mercury vapor, the likelihood of developing intrauterine pathologies in the fetus increases.
Severe poisoning ends in death within a few days. Consequently, acute poisoning is treated exclusively in a hospital setting. Therefore, it is important to know what will happen if such a lamp is broken, and how to act correctly in such a situation. Of course, if one light bulb breaks, it will not cause much harm to others. But it is still important to take all necessary precautions.
How much mercury is in an energy-saving lamp?
Depending on the characteristics of the energy-saving lamp, it may contain from 1 to 400 mg of mercury. If we compare it with a thermometer, then the amount of this metal in it is much greater - 2 g. A health threat is observed if the concentration of mercury vapor in the room is from 0.25 mg/cu.
Light bulbs that are produced in our country or in China contain mercury vapor, but devices from manufacturers from European countries contain mercury almagama (an alloy with another metal). It is less dangerous to health.
Considering the fact that in fact the danger of a broken energy-saving lamp is mostly exaggerated, you should not be scared or panic. However, everyone should be clearly aware that such light bulbs must be treated very carefully. This should be clearly explained to children.
The question of what is more dangerous is also quite relevant - if the thermometer breaks, or if the integrity of the lamp is lost. Despite the abundance of safe thermometers, mercury thermometers are still used in many families. It is a broken thermometer that is more dangerous, since small balls of mercury can roll into a variety of places and remain in crevices that are inaccessible for cleaning. If left indoors, mercury will poison the air for a long time. But if the integrity of an energy-saving lamp is damaged, there is no need to look for balls on the floor, since the mercury inside is only in the form of vapor. That is why the harm of energy-saving lamps in this case is less pronounced.
What to do if a light bulb bursts or breaks?
If a fluorescent lamp breaks, what to do depends on the circumstances in which this happened.
If such an incident occurs, you need to act by adhering to the following sequence of rules:
- Take children and animals out of the room where this happened, and immediately close the door there.
- It is important to be careful not to cut yourself on the fragments.
- If a light bulb breaks directly in the lamp, you should immediately disconnect it from the power supply.
- Open a window in the room, while closing all windows and doors in other rooms to avoid drafts. This is the most important step to clear the air of harmful mercury vapor as quickly as possible. Ventilation should continue for as long as possible, at least two hours. But ideally, the room should be ventilated throughout the day.
- You need to pour cold water into a large jar and add potassium permanganate there.
- Wear plastic or rubber gloves on your hands; if you don’t have these, use plastic bags. Under no circumstances should you pick up the fragments with your bare hands.
- Collect all the pieces of the light bulb, including the base, in a jar of liquid.
- Small particles of glass and luminescent coating should be collected using a wet rag, napkin or cotton wool, carefully and thoroughly blotting the surface where the device crashed. A cotton wool or napkin should also be placed in the water in a jar. You can also use tape to pick up small pieces.
- After completing all the work, close the jar with a lid and place it in a dark room where there are no people. Then you need to contact the Ministry of Emergency Situations, where they will tell you where you can take this waste.
- After this, you should look very carefully to see if there are any small pieces left under the furniture in the cracks and other places.
- The floor should be thoroughly washed with water and a detergent containing chlorine or water with soap and soda. You can also use a solution of potassium permanganate or iodine solution - 100 ml of iodine per 1 liter of water. Wet cleaning using these products should be carried out for several days in a row.
- After this, take a shower.
- Shoes and clothes that the person was wearing during cleaning do not need to be disposed of. All this must be washed thoroughly in a basin separately from other clothes.
Is it dangerous if a lamp breaks on a carpeted floor?
If everything happened exactly like this, then the main danger is the likely presence of small particles of glass in the carpet pile. As already indicated, all the pieces need to be assembled very carefully. Next, you should roll up the carpet and take it to a place where there is no one - in a vacant lot or in a field. It needs to be knocked out or shaken out very carefully. If possible, it is advisable to leave the carpet to air out in the open air for 24 hours.
What should you not do?
There are a number of prohibitions that also need to be taken into account. So, you can't do the following:
- collect the light bulb particles with a vacuum cleaner, otherwise the mercury will end up inside and settle there;
- turn on the air conditioner, as mercury vapor will settle inside it;
- use a broom or broom, as too strong movements will cause particles to scatter throughout the room;
- throw glass particles or a jar of waste into the garbage chute or take it to the trash;
- pour liquid from a jar containing the remains of a broken lamp down the drain.
Used whole light bulbs should not be thrown into the trash. They are handed over to collection points. Information on where to donate energy-saving lamps can sometimes be found in stores specializing in the sale of such devices. Sometimes used lamps can be handed over to points in these stores. If this is not possible, you can find out where to donate energy-saving light bulbs and where to dispose of leftovers if the lamp breaks by calling emergency rescue organizations.
conclusions
Even considering how much an energy-saving light bulb costs, these devices are very economical and convenient. But both the remains of broken and used devices must be disposed of correctly so as not to cause damage to the environment. If trouble occurs, you should not panic, but act according to the rules, which describe in detail what to do if a fluorescent lamp breaks.
According to statistics, approximately 70 million of these lamps fail every year. And only about 40% is recycled taking into account all the rules of this process. All the rest end up in household waste and poison the environment. Therefore, disposal issues must be treated very responsibly.