Mercury Exposure-Lightbulbs

saminohio1977

My husband was in the laundry room/half bath working and a lightbulb fell off the shelf and shattered. The noise caused my boston terriers to immediately wake from their nap and run in to see what the commotion was all about. I was upstairs. He yelled for me to get the dogs away so I  came down, rounded up the dogs and grabbed the supplies to help him clean up. Halfway through the cleanup we realized that the lightbulbs are those energy efficient ones that have mercury in them. My husband thinks I am fine bc he said any mercury would have been small and would have evaporated before I got in the room.

Any thoughts? 

uncannycanuck

What's done is done. I'm sure your exposure was very minimal.

Karen1998

I agree that the exposure, if any, is minimal and nothing to worry about.  My dad used to roll mercury in his hands as a kid (he'd gotten a vial of it somewhere).  He's fine and not crazy, which is actually what mercury makes you do - go mad.  Hence the term "mad hatters".   Hat felt used to contain mercury and the prolonged exposure to the mercury (and the constant handling of the felt) would eventually make the hatters mad.