We have a ceiling fixture that holds two bulbs. It is on many hours a day. One bulb is a 100-W incandescent and the other a 100-W equivalent CFL. I change the incandescent about every 3 months. (In fact, the incandescent I changed today was just put in at Thanksgiving.)
The CFL is 3 years old. I have the same dual setup in several fixtures and all of the CFLs are 3 years old. Not one has died, exloded, caught fire. I've had them last over 5 years. If they are dying quickly, you need to complain to your dealer and/or buy a different brand.
My wife didn't even realize there were CFLs in the fixtures until today.
"Mercury laden" fluorescent tubes and CFLs contain about 5 milligrams of mercury each. Old mercury fever thermometers had about 500 milligrams.
Calling hasmat.
“I change the incandescent about every 3 months.”
Incans can be installation-specific, like designed for base-up or base-down. Be sure you get a base-down type if you burn them base down, and base up if, you get it. The average incan can run at least 1500 hours, and there are ~2K hours in 3 months.
It should be on the packaging. Toxic Gorebulbs have similar constraints. Burning them base-up can be bad, as can burning them base-up and enclosed in a globe. The inverters can get very hot.
Lighting is complicated these days and requires some care and label-reading.
Overview of a two-page doc from the EPA of how to clean-up after a CFL breakage. Strange how I don't recall them issuing instructions like this for thermometers.
CLEANUP AND DISPOSAL OVERVIEW
The most important steps to reduce exposure to mercury vapor from a broken bulb are:
1. Before cleanup
a. Have people and pets leave the room.
b. Air out the room for 5‐10 minutes by opening a window or door to the outdoor environment.
c. Shut off the central forced air heating/air conditioning (H&AC) system, if you have one.
d. Collect materials needed to clean up broken bulb.
2. During cleanup
a. Be thorough in collecting broken glass and visible powder.
b. Place cleanup materials in a sealable container.
3. After cleanup
a. Promptly place all bulb debris and cleanup materials outdoors in a trash container or protected area until materials can be disposed of properly. Avoid leaving any bulb fragments or cleanup materials indoors.
b. For several hours, continue to air out the room where the bulb was broken and leave the H&AC system shut off.
That has been my experience, and I enjoy paying around one-third the cost of equivalent incandescent illumination.
I also replaced my worn-out top-loading washing machine with a high efficiency front-loader, and I used 19 dollars worth of soap and a LOT less hot water in the two years since (for the two of us).
Nothing wrong with cost efficiency, unless the gov't "invents" it, and they did not in these two cases.