The Ministry study

We were planning to do our own testing of the health hazards from broken CFLs – but when we heard in late 2008 of a study being conducted by the Ministry of Health we decided our test would be a waste of resources.

The scenarios

The Ministry’s study looked at two broken-CFL scenarios. In the first, mess from the broken bulb wasn’t cleaned up and the room wasn’t ventilated. In the second, the mess was cleared up and the room was ventilated by opening the window.

Mercury vapour concentration levels were measured 15, 30 and 60 minutes after the breakage at the breathing levels for a child (300mm above the floor) and an adult (1500mm).

The study concluded that

•  “The averaged one hour concentrations were not likely to be a health risk - even if the broken bulb was not cleaned up immediately”; and
• “adequate ventilation and clean up results in lower mercury concentrations”.

For both scenarios “human health risk is unlikely”.

The report can be downloaded from the Ministry of Health website.

Who did this study?

This study was performed by US-based Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment (TERA), under contract to the Institute of Environmental Science and Research Limited (ESR) and the New Zealand Ministry of Health.

TERA’s business is to “protect public health by developing and communicating risk assessment values, improving risk methods through research, and educating the public on risk assessment issues.”

 … “this assessment was conducted by an independent, non-profit organisation, using state-of-the-science chemical risk assessment methods to protect public health”.

TERA used data from several different laboratory experiments where CFLs were broken in a controlled environment and the mercury-vapour concentrations measured over time.