[uncommonsense]

Here's where it gets expensive (not to mention unhealthy as I found out - getting mercury poisoning from broken fluorescent lights and having to go through chelation therapy). First, you spend 5x more on CFLs, then if you break one, you have to follow an elaborate cleanup process that culminates in throwing away any materials that came in contact with the glass.

From the EPA web site What to Do if a Fluorescent Light Bulb Breaks:

Clean-up Steps for Clothing, Bedding and Other Soft Materials

If clothing or bedding materials come in direct contact with broken glass or mercury-containing powder from inside the bulb that may stick to the fabric, the clothing or bedding should be thrown away. Do not wash such clothing or bedding because mercury fragments in the clothing may contaminate the machine and/or pollute sewage

[ansel12]

“(not to mention unhealthy as I found out - getting mercury poisoning from broken fluorescent lights and having to go through chelation therapy).”

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How many broken fluorescents were you around?

[roadcat]

If clothing or bedding materials come in direct contact with broken glass or mercury-containing powder from inside the bulb that may stick to the fabric, the clothing or bedding should be thrown away.

Um, throw away the mercury-contaminated clothing or bedding. In your regular garbage, I presume. But don't throw away a CFL bulb? I just had another CFL blow out on me yesterday, and tossed the CFL into the garbage. Lasted only a year. Not going to buy any more; replaced it with a regular old-fashioned bulb.