The phosphor, or powder inside the fluorescent lamp, is not toxic. The question of toxicity in the phosphors used in fluorescent lamps was eliminated over 50 years ago when the industry moved to nontoxic rare earth and halo phosphors in all fluorescent lamps.
Fluorescent lamps contain mercury. Mercury at atmospheric pressure is a silver colored liquid that tends to form balls. Mercury is a hazardous substance. When one lamp is broken, the best thing to do is to wear chemical resistant glove to clean it up. The gloves can be vinyl, rubber, PVC, or neoprene. The gloves you buy in the supermarket for household cleaning are sufficient. The gloves protect your skin from absorbing mercury and from getting cut by the glass. The remains of one lamp can be disposed as normal waste since the amount of mercury small. However, for future reference, when large quantities of lamps are being disposed you must follow your state and the federal regulation for disposing of mercury containing lamps.
However, if you are disposing many fluorescent lamps you should know that because they contain mercury they are classified as hazardous waste unless 1) you, as the end user, generate less than 100kg of hazardous waste per month (approx. 360 4' T12 lamps) or 2) The lamps pass the EPA Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) Test. If the lamps meet these criteria and the state's regulation on TCLP is not stricter than the EPA's regulation, the lamps can be disposed in the same way as normal waste. However, if the lamps do not meet the criteria to be classified as normal waste, they will need to be either recycled by a lamp recycler or disposed under the hazardous waste guidelines of your state.
Information was found at
http://www.gelighting.com/na/faq/faq_lfl.html [This message has been edited by JuddsAirco (edited 11-28-2002).]
