Broken bulbs

Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) might cut down on household energy use, but there's a catch. Each lamp contains a small amount of mercury, a neurotoxin that can be released as vapour when a bulb is broken.

Now though, engineers at Brown University have discovered a nanomaterial that can absorb the mercury emitted from broken compact fluorescent lamps. And using it, they have created a mercury-capturing lining that can be attached to the inside of CFL packaging.

The packaging can be placed over the area where a bulb has been broken to absorb the mercury vapour emanating from the spill, or it can capture the mercury of a bulb broken in the box.

Robert Hurt, professor of engineering, and engineering student Natalie Johnson, developed the packaging along with other Brown engineering students and Steven Hamburg, associate professor of environmental studies.

They have also created a specially designed lining for plastic bags that soaks up the mercury left over from the CFL shards that are thrown away.