Thread: About mercury

I'm sure this is a really stupid question but I have always sucked at sciences so bear with me. ^^;

I've been wondering if there's any chance mercury vapour could leak out of an unbroken fluorescent light bulb - or, if that were to happen, the light bulb would just never work because by then it would have nothing inside?

Of course there is a chance. It's a very tiny amount though, only about 4 millligrams of mercury, so don't eat them or use them as an inhaler and you'll probably be okay.

http://www.energystar.gov/ia/product...de/Mercury.pdf

And you're correct in your assumption that the bulb would no longer work if the mercury vapor were to escape.

Hi!

Thanks for the info and the link.