The NIOSH standard for organic mercury in the air in a workplace is 0.05 mg/m3. Back of envelope, that's about 26 times the rate at which the mercury in this story "spiked." And we can assume that NIOSH's standard has a hefty safety margin built in to it. Dogs exposed to 0.1 mg/m3 (100,000 ng/m3) for 83 weeks showed no microscopic tissue damage.
http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/healthguidelines/mercuryvapor/recognition.html
Let's not get all Rachel Carson here. Dose makes the poison, and a broken CFL probably isn't going to poison you unless you snort the contents. An industrial accident at the factory? Maybe. A butterfingers moment standing on a chair? Probably not.
When I was a kid, I got my temperature taken using a mercury thermometer. Those contained about 500 mg of mercury (pdf). My mom stuck 500 mg of mercury up my butt.
Now there's grown men and women fretting and sniffing about light bulbs with five mg of mercury. You'd have to stick one hundred light bulbs up your butt just to equal the exposure I--and many of you--got as a child.
Think about it. A hundred light bulbs. In your butt. Good night everyone.
You know what the most dangerous part of this whole deal is?
The increasing encroachment of the Gov't passing laws that mandate what we shall/shall not buy/use in our private homes - and the control of private industry...That is NOT free capitalism.
A few people get this - it's Creeping Communism. It's what Shrillary and gang intend for this country - and even a lot of pubbie sheeple are swallowing the cover rationale and falling in lock step...
"Let's not swallow" the Commie scheme
