Following is an email I sent in to a radio show about a year ago, after they had a discussion on the "dangers" of CFL mercury.
This TRULY IS A HORROR STORY!
- -
Thanx Mike, for that pertinent, and timely warning on Monday's Daybreak about those extremely dangerous CFL bulbs .
Here is my own brief story about a CFL bulb that broke in my house, and the hell that ensued. -
About two weeks ago, one of my cats, "Tigger", knocked over a small table lamp containing a CFL bulb, which subsequently smashed.
I quickly evacuated the house, except for poor Tigger who had broken the toxic bulb.
We made sure that the house was sealed- all doors and windows closed - and I then dialed 9-1-1.
Within an hour or so ( I was amazed at the quick response!), a group of professionally trained "Hazardous Materials" (HazMat) specialists had been dispatched from Health Canada, and arrived on my property in a large white step-van.
Yes, it even had a yellow flashing light! Maybe two- I don't remember. Seems exciting, huh?
The house was quickly cordoned off with those yellow ribbons that you see on TV all the time.
Men in exotic Hazmat suits with specail breathing devices began to file into the house and professionally seal all the windows and doors. We were warned that the house would be "off-limits" while it was disinfected of the extremely poisonous Mercury. We gratefully spent two nights at a friend's house half a mile down the road.
The Hazmat team set upon clearing the house of any residual Mercury. A day or two later, they finally said that the house was safe to re-enter. Alas, the poor cat had been "put down" by the Health Canada team.
I told them that I would bury Tigger in the flower garden, but they refused to permit this.
I was told that the cat was now considered toxic waste, and would have to be removed to a special waste site somewhere in Ungava. I was heartbroken, but did not question this.
By now, you are probably suspecting that there seems to be something terribly amiss in this story.
Well!
I'm sorry but some of the above facts must be set straight.
Yes, Tigger did indeed knock over the lamp and break the CFL bulb.
But after this incident, things actually happened somewhat differently than reported above:
I quickly.. no, slowly- procured from the cellar stairs (while swearing at the cat under my breathe,) a device commonly referred to as a "dustpan".
The hazardous broken glass was then swept into it with a special Hazmat tool known as a "brush".
Once all the glass was thusly secured, it was dumped surreptitiously into the very small household garbage can. (hey- we recycle and compost extensively)
And any residual glass shards were then eradicated with the standard household Vacuum cleaner.
No droplets of the dreaded toxic Mercury were ever detected (read further below)
The cat, (Tigger) I might add, watched silently from across the room, perhaps realizing he had committed a faux-pas (or is that a Fax-paws?.)
And!
So far, I am ahppy to report that we are all still alive and seemingly healthy. Including the miscreant Tigger.
I am fairly certain Tigger is still alive, due to his jumping mightily onto my chest (OOF! be still, my sleeping heart!) at 7AM this morning, and then staring boldly into my face and crying to let him outside.
Of course, when he jumped on me, I woke up, turned on the radio, and...
Guess what?
Heard you discussing the above CFL disposal conundrum with some airhead from Heath Canada:
"Hey, Mike, I hear what you're saying", "Ok, Mike, Like I know where you're coming from!", "I'm glad you asked me that question, Mike!" etc etc
Nice to have a sinecure,huh?
Anyhow this is my testimony that, somehow, both the cat and I survived this terrible accident. Gosh, there is hope for modern Canadian 21st humanity yet, in spite of these worrisome CFL incidents.
An addendum:
HALF a century ago (no, perhaps even more), as high schoo
Well, let's exclude the USA.
Many kids in other "western" countries appear to get a reasonable grounding in Science and Physics.
But, golly! American kids just wanna have fun.
now with all the salt on the roads in the winter plus 6 billion people urinating all over the place.
NO, NO! It IS the $alt companies. They make their $alt from disgusting chemicals and then force us to eat them!
And the excess, they pour into the ocean!
I recall, as a young lad, I swam in a $alt free ocean!
And that was before M$ bought up all the $alt companies!
Now, all we have is recycled sea salt to flavour our Aragula!
Now, if you'll excuse me, I must go out and cut some co-workers brakelines before daylight comes.
None of that pantywaist "coolant crap sabotage" for THIS dude!
Heck, my neighbour (he's a farmer) has a few pigs.
I'm darn well gonna go over there tomorrow with my win7 laptop, and see if I can make you eat crow!
Figuratively speaking of course - (at least I hope so!)
But only because I upgraded my mboard, and now my old XP says it is illegal.
Funny it wasn't four years ago. But I digress.
Anyhow Win7 seems great. So far. But what happens Aug 1?
Will MS send me (or all of us) a bill for $695? "take it or leave it!" LOL!
Well, I still have my Ubuntu systems in the background...
See the movie "Bagdad Cafe" where at the beginnig the old German guy offers his hosts a snort of... "Coffee?"
And later on, the German woman complains "This is just brown water".
-
Why can't we keep this available as some kind of micro-economy?
Fossetts.
Well, OK.. just issuing this here as some kind of trail balloon. But it's probably dead already.
Great! Can I bury my obnoxious neighbour there?
He's small and claims he follows a "macrobiotic diet". So, he won't exhibit much of a "carbon footprint". PLEEEEAZE??
I need the money.
I'm somewhat musically inclined, and I think my timing could be improved (at least according to my ex-wives),
so perhaps there is financial hope for me yet.
So.
Just what do I have to do to power this ridiculous "space elevator"? .
Slashdot Mirror
And who exactly wants to live in something that resembles a hospital?
Well, none of us, of course, but perhaps we should start acclimatizing ourselves to it...
BTW, I bet you still haven't made out a will yet. -
Following is an email I sent in to a radio show about a year ago, after they had a discussion on the "dangers" of CFL mercury.
This TRULY IS A HORROR STORY!
- -
Thanx Mike, for that pertinent, and timely warning on Monday's Daybreak about those extremely dangerous CFL bulbs .
Here is my own brief story about a CFL bulb that broke in my house, and the hell that ensued. - About two weeks ago, one of my cats, "Tigger", knocked over a small table lamp containing a CFL bulb, which subsequently smashed.
I quickly evacuated the house, except for poor Tigger who had broken the toxic bulb.
We made sure that the house was sealed- all doors and windows closed - and I then dialed 9-1-1.
Within an hour or so ( I was amazed at the quick response!), a group of professionally trained "Hazardous Materials" (HazMat) specialists had been dispatched from Health Canada, and arrived on my property in a large white step-van. Yes, it even had a yellow flashing light! Maybe two- I don't remember. Seems exciting, huh? The house was quickly cordoned off with those yellow ribbons that you see on TV all the time. Men in exotic Hazmat suits with specail breathing devices began to file into the house and professionally seal all the windows and doors. We were warned that the house would be "off-limits" while it was disinfected of the extremely poisonous Mercury. We gratefully spent two nights at a friend's house half a mile down the road. The Hazmat team set upon clearing the house of any residual Mercury. A day or two later, they finally said that the house was safe to re-enter. Alas, the poor cat had been "put down" by the Health Canada team. I told them that I would bury Tigger in the flower garden, but they refused to permit this. I was told that the cat was now considered toxic waste, and would have to be removed to a special waste site somewhere in Ungava. I was heartbroken, but did not question this.
By now, you are probably suspecting that there seems to be something terribly amiss in this story.
Well!
I'm sorry but some of the above facts must be set straight.
Yes, Tigger did indeed knock over the lamp and break the CFL bulb.
But after this incident, things actually happened somewhat differently than reported above:
I quickly.. no, slowly- procured from the cellar stairs (while swearing at the cat under my breathe,) a device commonly referred to as a "dustpan". The hazardous broken glass was then swept into it with a special Hazmat tool known as a "brush". Once all the glass was thusly secured, it was dumped surreptitiously into the very small household garbage can. (hey- we recycle and compost extensively) And any residual glass shards were then eradicated with the standard household Vacuum cleaner.
No droplets of the dreaded toxic Mercury were ever detected (read further below)
The cat, (Tigger) I might add, watched silently from across the room, perhaps realizing he had committed a faux-pas (or is that a Fax-paws?.) And!
So far, I am ahppy to report that we are all still alive and seemingly healthy. Including the miscreant Tigger.
I am fairly certain Tigger is still alive, due to his jumping mightily onto my chest (OOF! be still, my sleeping heart!) at 7AM this morning, and then staring boldly into my face and crying to let him outside.
Of course, when he jumped on me, I woke up, turned on the radio, and...
Guess what?
Heard you discussing the above CFL disposal conundrum with some airhead from Heath Canada: "Hey, Mike, I hear what you're saying", "Ok, Mike, Like I know where you're coming from!", "I'm glad you asked me that question, Mike!" etc etc Nice to have a sinecure,huh?
Anyhow this is my testimony that, somehow, both the cat and I survived this terrible accident. Gosh, there is hope for modern Canadian 21st humanity yet, in spite of these worrisome CFL incidents.
An addendum:
HALF a century ago (no, perhaps even more), as high schoo
Fukit, man.
I'm going back to punchcards.
80 bytes (or characters) - THAT I can still understand.
Now where's my green card...
You punks wouldn't know what I'm even talkin' about...
.
I'm wondering why the guy ended up as a *truck driver* by trade...
THIS might explain it. Then again, it might not...
.
Well, let's exclude the USA. Many kids in other "western" countries appear to get a reasonable grounding in Science and Physics. But, golly! American kids just wanna have fun.
Either through bad parenting, or poor choice of a college.
.
.
- Everyone knows that the Tralfalmadorians will destroy the universe, when they test their new rocket fuel...
now with all the salt on the roads in the winter plus 6 billion people urinating all over the place.
NO, NO! It IS the $alt companies. They make their $alt from disgusting chemicals and then force us to eat them!
And the excess, they pour into the ocean! I recall, as a young lad, I swam in a $alt free ocean!
And that was before M$ bought up all the $alt companies!
Now, all we have is recycled sea salt to flavour our Aragula!
.
I wonder if this guy is a former engineer for an old NASA Mars probe team...
Naw....
.
- He worked as a refueling technician for AIR CANADA
Just remember to bring your parachute next trip!
Golly, you must be loads of fun at parties!
.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I must go out and cut some co-workers brakelines before daylight comes.
None of that pantywaist "coolant crap sabotage" for THIS dude!
Heck, my neighbour (he's a farmer) has a few pigs.
I'm darn well gonna go over there tomorrow with my win7 laptop, and see if I can make you eat crow!
Figuratively speaking of course - (at least I hope so!)
But only because I upgraded my mboard, and now my old XP says it is illegal. Funny it wasn't four years ago.
But I digress.
Anyhow Win7 seems great. So far. But what happens Aug 1? Will MS send me (or all of us) a bill for $695? "take it or leave it!" LOL!
Well, I still have my Ubuntu systems in the background...
See the movie "Bagdad Cafe" where at the beginnig the old German guy offers his hosts a snort of... "Coffee?"
And later on, the German woman complains "This is just brown water".
-
Why can't we keep this available as some kind of micro-economy?
.
Fossetts.
Well, OK.. just issuing this here as some kind of trail balloon. But it's probably dead already.
Hey, I haven't had a good one since 1997.
..
,
/. smartass: ...
And that's BEFORE my wife left me!
-
Ok, ok.. I know what you're gonna say. Let me beat you to it, you
- And she hasn't had a good one UNTIL she left me..!
(sigh)
In Soviet America, DHS... awww.. ferget it. It's redundant.
I tried "always the same" as a password, and oddly, got a view of Sarah Palin's backyard!
.. and I think I may have seen some Russians creeping across the tundra in the distance. Ahh... they were probably just hockey players.
So he's the Chuck Norris of futurism?
Ray Kurzweil doesn't just predict the future; he WHACKS it into the present!
.. and what is prologue is past.
.
Aww.. Fukoff.
Yeats was a looser.
So was Auden. And Isherwood.
And don't try 'n tel me they were borne before there time!
.
Hey! Take it easy!
.
Some of us are borne too loose!
Yes, but he will have to use his frist.
And think hard about a p0st.
.
Great! Can I bury my obnoxious neighbour there?
He's small and claims he follows a "macrobiotic diet".
So, he won't exhibit much of a "carbon footprint".
PLEEEEAZE??
.
And I think it's at the bottom of my swimming pool.
Sleep with the (gold)fishes, dear.
I'll see what's left of you in the spring, when I clean the pool.
.
back to work in no time with a huge rack.
(gasp) Pamela Anderson will be doing their commercials?
YAAAYYY WHHHEE! Every macweenie's wet dream!
.
I need the money.
.
I'm somewhat musically inclined, and I think my timing could be improved (at least according to my ex-wives), so perhaps there is financial hope for me yet.
So.
Just what do I have to do to power this ridiculous "space elevator"?