CF stands for....

ok, you can guess what i mean by 'CF' once you read of my run in with a compact florescent light bulb tonight. but some background first....several months ago i remember reading on my ideal bite daily email that when a CF bulb breaks it's unbelievably toxic. there were many steps to clean up, yadda yadda and i thought wow. i have GOT to remember all of that. THAT is incredibly useful information. and then, i forgot. i have nowhere to put useful information like that. probably because i had to remember to make toby yet another sandwich he won't eat. or wash my 3 millionth baby bottle.

so back to my run in. right as i'm telling toby 'turn off your light' (ie. all bedtime work is over, commence the dinner/tv watching/blog reading) he pulls too hard, gets tangled in the cord and over goes the lamp and crash goes the CF bulb. bad. really really bad. so i scooped him out, got him out of the room and ran to my computer to find that posting about how to clean up this mess.

here are the steps
-get the kids + pets out of the room asap
-do not let anyone track through the dust/glass (duh, i know, sorry)
-open the windows for at least 15 minutes
-if you have central heating or a/c turn it off
-do NOT use a vacuum or a broom to clean up the glass particles on hard surfaces
-use a piece of cardboard and scoop the big pieces into a glass jar with a lid or a sealable plastic bag
-use duct tape or other sticky tape to clean up the dust on a solid floor
-if you have to use a vacuum on a carpet, immediately after vacuuming, remove the bag from the canister and place in a sealed plastic bag

if you don't trust me or think i'm overreacting, check out the epa site, they have very detailed instructions. unlike mine, i just boiled it down to something you might remember 3 months from now and it's you. and it's bedtime. and LOST is on in 20 minutes and you have a full bottle of organic red wine to drink. priorities people. you should have seen bob with his clean up gear on. it was straight out of E.T.

oh the joys of being eco-friendly, right? replace all your light bulbs with compact florescent bulbs and you can save 10 rain forests a year etc. but when they break it's so toxic you can't VACUUM it up. how is that better? anyways, be smarter than me. make sure the kids rooms have regular old light bulbs. they may not last forever but at least you won't miss LOST cleaning it up.