sgr42o
Well-Known Member
Just a heads up for all those fellow CFL growers. A typical CFL contains about 5mg of mercury. If you're like me you usually have a fan running and 10+ CFL's in various poisitions in your grow room. All it takes is dropping a CFL, having the fan pointed your direction, and inhaling at that moment and you've potentially been subjected to mercury poisoning. I had a scenario like this happen tonight but luckily the fan was pointed a little to the side of me so it just got on my arms and clothing. The fact is these CFL's contain very little mercury, about 5mg, so unless you directly inhale that puff of dust when it breaks you should be OK assuming you take some proper precuations. Here's some tips for those who drop a CFL:
1. Turn off the fans when working with CFL's. When a CFL breaks the mercury turns into a gas and a fan spreads the gas in direction its pointed. If it's pointed at you you might get poisoned by it via inhaling the cloud. (Inhaling it is the worst case scenario. Getting it on your skin can still make you sick but shouldn't be too serious. If directly inhaled pay attention to any symptoms and worst case goto the ER. However, if you're having major issues TELL THEM ITS PROBABLY MERCURY POISONING. Lieing about it will obstruct their ability to help you. Obviously you don't need to tell them it happened in your illegal grow op; simply say you were changing a bulb.)
2. DON'T PICK UP BROKEN PIECES WITH BARE HANDS. Instead, use rubber gloves. The glass is covered in mercury and doing this is asking for mercury poisoning. While it won't kill you it may make you sick.
3. If you break a CFL on/near your plant consider killing it. (I'm a hypicrite though; I refused to kill my WW that was near it. The fan was blowing in the opposite direction of it and it broke a good foot away from the plant so I doubt it got any mercury on it.)
4. Clean your grow room as best as you can. Wipe down EVERYTHING with disinfecting wipes. Make sure you get rid of every last bit of the broken CFL.
5. Air out the grow area for eight hours. Put a fan at the door of it so it blows it into another room or out a window. Considering leaving the room for this period as well. While it's unlikely you'll get sick it's better safe than sorry. 5mg of mercury is very little and if its blown into other rooms it'll become so small of an amount over a large area that its not even toxic anymore.
Anyhow, I realize some may say this should be common sense by now but I figure it's worth mentioning for those who didn't already know about this.
Good luck everyone with your CFL grow!
1. Turn off the fans when working with CFL's. When a CFL breaks the mercury turns into a gas and a fan spreads the gas in direction its pointed. If it's pointed at you you might get poisoned by it via inhaling the cloud. (Inhaling it is the worst case scenario. Getting it on your skin can still make you sick but shouldn't be too serious. If directly inhaled pay attention to any symptoms and worst case goto the ER. However, if you're having major issues TELL THEM ITS PROBABLY MERCURY POISONING. Lieing about it will obstruct their ability to help you. Obviously you don't need to tell them it happened in your illegal grow op; simply say you were changing a bulb.)
2. DON'T PICK UP BROKEN PIECES WITH BARE HANDS. Instead, use rubber gloves. The glass is covered in mercury and doing this is asking for mercury poisoning. While it won't kill you it may make you sick.
3. If you break a CFL on/near your plant consider killing it. (I'm a hypicrite though; I refused to kill my WW that was near it. The fan was blowing in the opposite direction of it and it broke a good foot away from the plant so I doubt it got any mercury on it.)
4. Clean your grow room as best as you can. Wipe down EVERYTHING with disinfecting wipes. Make sure you get rid of every last bit of the broken CFL.
5. Air out the grow area for eight hours. Put a fan at the door of it so it blows it into another room or out a window. Considering leaving the room for this period as well. While it's unlikely you'll get sick it's better safe than sorry. 5mg of mercury is very little and if its blown into other rooms it'll become so small of an amount over a large area that its not even toxic anymore.
Anyhow, I realize some may say this should be common sense by now but I figure it's worth mentioning for those who didn't already know about this.
Good luck everyone with your CFL grow!