North of 49

4. What should I do if I break a fluorescent bulb?

Puncture resistant gloves are recommended for cleaning up broken glass. After picking up all large fragments, wipe area thoroughly to clean any remaining glass or phosphor residue. If necessary, ventilate area to remove any remaining fine phosphor dust. After handling broken lamps, wash hands and face thoroughly. Incidental exposure to lamp contents is not harmful. The basic phosphor used in the manufacture of fluorescent lamps is a relatively inert phosphate. The small amount of mercury contained in each lamp will not cause any significant amount of airborne mercury, since most of the elemental mercury remains adhered to the phosphor surface. No adverse health effects are expected from exposure to a broken fluorescent tube.

13. How should I dispose of fluorescent lamps?

Please refer to our state disposal policies page. In most states, fluorescent and compact fluorescent light bulbs used at home can be disposed of in the same way as regular light bulbs. While all fluorescent bulbs contain a trace amount of mercury, the quantity is so minute that household disposal is not regulated by federal standards (established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency).

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 your state's regulation on TCLP is not stricter than the EPA's regulation, the lamps can be disposed of 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.

GE Ecolux® lamps pass federal TCLP regulations and therefore, by federal standards, are not considered hazardous waste. However, you should check with your state regulations to determine if they are stricter than the federal regulations. Other non-Ecolux lamps are not consistently TCLP-compliant.

Look for Ecolux lamps in the fluorescent section of our Lamp Product Catalog.