Worried about mercury or cfs poisoning.

Hi everyone, this is my first post and unfortunately it's a worrying one for me.

I have 13 parrots and 3 of them live together in a spare room . They have cages that they go in at bedtime but apart from that they just use the room as a large cage.
I have put a prolite daylight bulb in the light fitting that hangs from the ceiling and I covered the wire with wire mesh so that they can't chew it.

Anyway when I got them up this morning, I switched on the light but it didn't come on so I thought the bulb had blown and we just needed a new one. I went to change it and that's when I noticed it was broken. The end of the spiral was smashed and I found the broken glass on the floor.

I checked the birds and they were ok, no cuts and they seemed happy.

The reason I am worried is because I have heard that these spiral shaped bulbs have mercury in them and cfs gas and other dangerous things.
Now I am terrified that my birds are going to die because they breathed in the chemicals.

Does anyone know if it will be ok, and will I be ok because I handled the broken bulb and I might have breathed in chemicals too.
I'm so scared now.
Thanks in advance.

Oh just incase the size of the birds make a difference , they are a male eclectus 10 months old, a female eclectus 18 months old and a female cockateil 2 years old, all hatched and handreared by me. So they are very special to me.

You will be fine! Others will chime in that know what they are talking about for the birds! Standard advice, definitely contact your vet tell them what happened! They may want to treat your birds for heavy-metal poisoning!

Thankyou for replying David.

There is a very small amount of mercury in CFL bulbs, enough that the recommend wrapping them in a paper towel before discarding. But it's a very small amount, and in solid form, and I don't believe it's enough to pose a danger to you or your birds. I would wipe up the entire floor with damp paper towels and maybe wash the cages and food bowls etc. in the room, in case any powder got sprayed around during the break. You probably have to wash them regularly anyhow, so it's a good time.

Assuming that you are in the USA, each State has their own clean-up requirement for that type of Bulb!!! Some States (not kidding here) require that a professional clean-up crew come with all the safety equipment to assure that the contamination is not spread.

The concern for a single bulb is not the cfs since the bulbs volume compared to the volume of the room /home takes it to a non issue. Had the bulb been in the cage (Never Do This) that would be another issue. The concern is the mercury!

Never use a vacuum clearer to pick-up the glass from this type of bulb since it will contaminate your vacuum and your only choice is to trash it with proper care to assure that it is never used by others. Never re-use a Vacuum cleaner that has been used to clean-up mercury!

If you used a broom and dust pan, trash them. Afterwards use a wet towel to pick-up any remaining glass and dust from that area. Trash them. This will assure that you meet the minimum requirements for cleaning-up a mercury spill.

As per above, check with your Vet regarding heavy metal issue that mercury presents!

This type of bulb is fairly stable and it would be very rare for it to fail as you described. So, double check as to why this bulb failed.

Please stop using this type of mini tube product! Direct contact can result in the type of failure. Replace with LED Day Light Bulbs. NEVER use bulb greater that the fixture is rated! If the fixture is rated at 40 Watts that's the largest you should use. It is very possible that the mini tube bulb may have been over-sized (Wattage) and as a result of overheating, it failed. If all true, you are lucky that you did not have a fire.

I'm echoing the above advice, you could always give your Avian Vet a call and explain the situation to them to get a second opinion. Also, may I just say I applaud you for being such a caring owner and being so concerned about your bird's wellbeing and safety. It's great that you are reaching out, explaining your situation, being descriptive about what you saw, which birds of yours were in the room and what you have done to handle it so far. Great job!!!

After this is all over, I would love to see pics of all your fids!!!

My thought and fear, was that one of the parrrots broke the Bulb!

WOW!
I learned a lot, thanks to this thread.
Thanks, all!
Scary... good luck, Arthur (and flock).

Thankyou for your replies everyone..

OMG! Sailboat, that is so scary, why do they make those bulbs if they are so dangerous? I am in the UK by the way, don't think we have to get the hazrd teams in.

Anyway I wrapped it up and disposed it but I found out it is just a normal daylight bulb, I bought it from the Parrot Society show that we have over here in England.
I had it in the normal ceiling light fitting and it had a light shade that had thick glass drops around it. I found one of the drops from the shade on the floor. I think one of the birds, probably Arthur the male eclectus cos he's clumsy, must have bumped into the shade and the decorative drops smashed into the bulb and broke it.
My husband is going to attach some wire mesh around the light to protect the bulb from clumsy fids from now on.

I tell ya...what a scare, and now it's got me thinking about the other rooms in our house with the energy saving bulbs, I hate them, they give off such a horrible glow.

I'm off out to the pub now for St Patrick's Day, but tommorrow I will try and put some pics of my birdies up...if I'm not too hungover on Guiness lol..

ArthurPint said:

Thankyou for your replies everyone..

OMG! Sailboat, that is so scary, why do they make those bulbs if they are so dangerous? I am in the UK by the way, don't think we have to get the hazrd teams in.

Anyway I wrapped it up and disposed it but I found out it is just a normal daylight bulb, I bought it from the Parrot Society show that we have over here in England.
I had it in the normal ceiling light fitting and it had a light shade that had thick glass drops around it. I found one of the drops from the shade on the floor. I think one of the birds, probably Arthur the male eclectus cos he's clumsy, must have bumped into the shade and the decorative drops smashed into the bulb and broke it.
My husband is going to attach some wire mesh around the light to protect the bulb from clumsy fids from now on.

I tell ya...what a scare, and now it's got me thinking about the other rooms in our house with the energy saving bulbs, I hate them, they give off such a horrible glow.

I'm off out to the pub now for St Patrick's Day, but tommorrow I will try and put some pics of my birdies up...if I'm not too hungover on Guiness lol..

Click to expand...

At the hardware store you can buy an inexpensive plastic cage that goes over the bulb to protect it from smashy things. Don't ask me how I know.

Insane, when I was a child, we used to fight with dead fluorescent tubes! As an engineering tech, ups testing, we used to throw them at each other when bored! Now, in California, you may get your house tented!

Flboy said:

Insane, when I was a child, we used to fight with dead fluorescent tubes! As an engineering tech, ups testing, we used to throw them at each other when bored! Now, in California, you may get your house tented!

Click to expand...

Remember the chemistry sets with Atomic Energy? A little vial of radium? And it was before my time, but the x-Ray machines in shoe stores so you could see how well your foot fit in the shoe? How did we survive?

Kentuckienne said:

Flboy said:

Insane, when I was a child, we used to fight with dead fluorescent tubes! As an engineering tech, ups testing, we used to throw them at each other when bored! Now, in California, you may get your house tented!

Click to expand...

Remember the chemistry sets with Atomic Energy? A little vial of radium? And it was before my time, but the x-Ray machines in shoe stores so you could see how well your foot fit in the shoe? How did we survive?

Click to expand...

Perhaps,,,,we didn't! This may be the afterlife!

Flboy said:

Kentuckienne said:

Flboy said:

Insane, when I was a child, we used to fight with dead fluorescent tubes! As an engineering tech, ups testing, we used to throw them at each other when bored! Now, in California, you may get your house tented!

Click to expand...

Remember the chemistry sets with Atomic Energy? A little vial of radium? And it was before my time, but the x-Ray machines in shoe stores so you could see how well your foot fit in the shoe? How did we survive?

Click to expand...

Perhaps,,,,we didn't! This may be the afterlife!

Click to expand...

Is it Elon Musk who theorizes that we are all characters in a computer simulation? If so, it's a Philip K. Dick novel..

Kentuckienne said:

Flboy said:

Kentuckienne said:

Remember the chemistry sets with Atomic Energy? A little vial of radium? And it was before my time, but the x-Ray machines in shoe stores so you could see how well your foot fit in the shoe? How did we survive?

Click to expand...

Perhaps,,,,we didn't! This may be the afterlife!

Click to expand...

Is it Elon Musk who theorizes that we are all characters in a computer simulation? If so, it's a Philip K. Dick novel..

Click to expand...

...Or was it David Icke who said everything is a hologram?

Anyway birds all ok and we got a wire mesh over the light now. Thought wire will be stronger than plastic incase they try to chew it.