IMHO, the EPA is intentionally trying to downplay the risk of CFLs. They publish in bold at the top of their page;
"
CFLs contain a very small amount of mercury -- less than 1/100th of the amount in a mercury thermometer."
But here is what they left out:
When ingested, only 0.01% of liquid mercury (thermometer) is absorbed by the body, while 80% of inhaled mercury vapor (i.e. broken CFL bulbs) is absorbed by the body. THAT'S A DIFFERENCE OF *8000x*, hardly the "1/100th of the amount" cited.
They also left out:
A CFL bulb contains 4-5mg of mercury. The OSHA exposure limits for organic mercury vapor is 0.05 mg/m³. A single CFL bulb broken in a 10x10 room is 0.221mg/m³, over 4x the OSHA exposure limit.
Which begs the question; Why are they trying to minimize the danger of CFL breakage?
Not from what I've read recently. It's actually a very small amount and only an issue if you break it and you're supposed to just wash your hands and ideally open a window in the room if you can.
In simple terms, the risk posed by breaking a CFL bulb is much more like breaking 64 mercury thermometers. Does 64 broken thermometers in your child's room sound like "a very small amount of mercury"??
And if it's such a negligible risk, why does the EPA recommend these actions;
* Open a window or door to the outdoors and
leave the room
* Shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning
* Check with your local or state government about disposal requirements
* leave the heating and AC system shut off for several hours
* The next several times you vacuum, shut off the HVAC system, close the doors to other rooms, and open a window or door to the outside.
http://www.epa.gov/cfl/cflcleanup-detailed.html