Extensive cleanup is required by the Environmental Protection Agency for simply breaking a bulb. When a bulb, which contains mercury, is broken, according to the EPA, the room must be evacuated for 15 minutes and aired out with windows, but not before all glass is removed, placed in a sealed glass jar and disposed of outside. Any remaining glass must be picked up with tape. In addition, central heating or air conditioning units must be turned off. Every fluorescent bulb contains mercury. Each time a bulb breaks, every office in the U.S. would have to shut down if this were true. The amount in each bulb is minute.