CFL broke, will it poison my drying buds?

I was dumb enough to break a cfl in my the room I let my buds dry. they are just 3 days from being ready for curing. Is my crop poisenous now? Should I toss the whole thing? Major panic attack here.

Did you clean the bulb out right away? Did you air out the room they are drying in? If so I would probably not be overly concerned but that is a tough call....


Take a look at this:

http://www.helplightnj.com/content/documents/MercuryInFish-vs-InLamps.pdf

So if you divide up the lb weight to an average serving, compared to the bulb... what do you get? I suspect you will be fine as long as you don't make a habit of it?

If my calculations are correct (do your own) and you actually consumed all the mercury from that one bulb you would be getting about 5.8x of mercury vs eating 3oz serving of Tuna, however I think smoking mercury may be more harmful...

Definitely an interesting topic, hope more people can chime in.

I wouldn't worry about it but if you really think you might have fucked things up maybe look into water curing. Never tried it but I'm sure it will get all that nasty stuff out you don't want to smoke.

KushXOJ said:

I wouldn't worry about it but if you really think you might have fucked things up maybe look into water curing. Never tried it but I'm sure it will get all that nasty stuff out you don't want to smoke.

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I was thinking the same thing, maybe a water cure to be safe.

Catchin22 said:

<SNIP>
Definitely an interesting topic, hope more people can chime in.

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Mercury evaporates at room temperature, so you probably absorbed most of it when you were cleaning up.

It's gone now. It probably was dispersed with no effect.

Good Luck

Catchin22 said:

I was thinking the same thing, maybe a water cure to be safe.

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"IF" the bud does have some mercury contamination, putting it in water will only give you contaminated bud in now contaminated water.
As mercury is a liquid normally, as a liquid it can evaporate into vapor. LOTS AND LOTS of air flow over it with the air being expelled OUTSIDE will clear it over time. A proper cure, if your worried about the contamination, is not possible now. Just air flow dry the fuck out of it and your room..

There is very little mercury in the bulbs, but enough to require safe clean up if they break. That amount on your skin and then quickly washed off has very low risk...but that amount or less entering the body via vapors or ingestion? I am not a DR., but I don't think that is good for you...And yes, there is an amount of mercury in sea food. If you eat a lot of that on top of contaminated bud, the exposure can add up.
I am not a fan of CFLs even for normal house lighting. Not because of the mercury, but I just don't like the visual look of the light and the split second delay/flicker when you switch one on. Our ceiling fan uses an odd ball based CFL. Using the largest watt it still doesn't produce enough light to illuminate the living room without additional lights. I'll probably rewire it so it will use standard incandescent bulbs. I have even stocked up on 100W home bulbs before they are no longer available in the USA.

Whens the last time you used a CFL bulb? I don't think nowadays they have much if any delay or flicker when turning them on.

Also, starting to think that I should only buy these types:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002L3T1QS

If I can find them in the right spectrum and wattage. That's probably how they ALL should be to reduce chance of exposure...

Holy shlmokes, I never expected such a fast response and this is athick thread now. You guys are incredible.
When the (small) cfl broke I immediately took it (just a hole was made in it) and put it in a bag, then closed it and opened the window and put a fan on. the buds are drtying in the other side of the room and i didnt want to fan them so not to fan mercury at them.
Allin all the room was hyper ventilated but not the side of the buds.
The cfl was kept in a bag in the room for maybe 5-5 minutes.
You guys think i'm in the clear? I had the weak buds dry out in the room and my major buds drying in a DarkRoom closet with a fan cycling air in and out.
Thats the real stuff i care about most.

Hmm, if you broke the CFL in a way where it didn't explode or was dropped and busted into many pieces, your ventilation probably was good enough. Since I am not a scientist or DR., I will not say you are or are not good.
If the CFL snapped in your hand instead of being dropped, the contamination would not spread out like being aggressively being released. I have done that before over tightening a curly CFL.

Catchin22 said:

Whens the last time you used a CFL bulb? I don't think nowadays they have much if any delay or flicker when turning them on.

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We got one in the kitchen. Not sure how old be we have had it awhile. There is a slight delay from flipping the switch and it turning on. Not much of a delay, but I notice it.
We have had others where the light seemed harsh with a ting of blue. In a multi bulb light fixture, the CFL stuck out like a sore thumb.
They may have gotten better, but in my experience I don't like the light quality.

Yeah, the newer ones are nearly instant IMO. You wouldn't want to stick a CFL with other incandescent, I would suspect they would stick out! Same as if you stuck one incandescent with a CFL. You probably also just had one on the blue side, near 6500k, incandescents tend to usually sell as 2700k.

from what ive read here I'd feel safe smoking it.. small hole , not directly near the goods. you dealt with it fast. it evaporates at room temp. If anything is in the air your filters should get most..
Just don't smoke too much and eat too many tuna sandwiches at the same time you should be ok... I would cutout the tuna sandwiches first myself.
( tuna sandwich looses bigtime in the survey and polls)

Seeing as these bulbs have been used in places that serve food to the public, me thinks the standards people would make sure they were'nt a severe hazard to humans through consumption or any sort (ingesting, smoking, skin absorption etc.) Just my thought but I really dont think you have anything to worry about.

I would definitely smoke it. You have probably come in contact with far worse wihout even knowing it.

lol br0

Catchin22 said:

If my calculations are correct (do your own) and you actually consumed all the mercury from that one bulb you would be getting about 5.8x of mercury vs eating 3oz serving of Tuna, however I think smoking mercury may be more harmful...

Definitely an interesting topic, hope more people can chime in.

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mercury vapor d00d vapor vapor mang wait lemme kalkulate dat for j00 vapor in da cfl cfl breaks vapor solidifyz and drops on da budz and iz poisonus br0 i sm0ke fish!