Lessee... 5 mg per bulb means 200 bulbs for each gram of Hg. And there's 28.3 grams in an ounce, so it's roughly 5660 bulbs per ounce. A million bulbs would contain 1000000/5660 ounces, which is about 176.7 ounces, or 11 pounds of mercury. It's a bit more than you suggested, but not life-on-Earth threatening.
I still agree with your conclusion after having played with many pools of mercury from thermometers and science class beakers.
Someone else, kindly check MY math.
Just to be clear, that 5 MILLIgrams per CFL, not MICROgrams
SO you are correct at 10e-3, not 10e-6; that was my error.
But the result/effect is the same.
We do worse things to the environment with all the energizers we put in the kitchen trash.
“A million bulbs would contain 1000000/5660 ounces, which is about 176.7 ounces, or 11 pounds of mercury. It’s a bit more than you suggested, but not life-on-Earth threatening.”
So renaming this thread “How many congressionally-approved light bulbs does it take to screw your kids?” may not make much sense.