[cripplecreek]

The lights still had mercury in them regardless of whether they were made in China. Same with the street lights that are still pretty common where they haven’t switched to the orange sodium vapor lights.

[aldabra]

The lights still had mercury in them regardless of whether they were made in China. Same with the street lights that are still pretty common where they haven’t switched to the orange sodium vapor lights.

I'm no fan of the EPA which I'm certain exaggerates the risk. However I neglected to specify some additional points.

Because of no/poor quality control no one knows how much mercury vapor is in CLF's and they may well be much more fragile than the old tubes. In my experience as China corners the market on any product, quality greatly deteriorates.

Exposure to broken tubes you handled in the past, and outdoor street lights lights would have disipated fairly rapidly. The vapor in our hermetically sealed, green energy efficient homes is a different matter.