How many people here have had a CFL bulb expire and fill their house with horrid smoke?

As an environmental activist and Registered Nurse ( I am a former Board Member of an environmental coalition organization ) I try to do what I can for the environment and for public health. Therefore, a year ago, we changed all the light bulbs in our home to the new CFL light bulbs under the impression that we were doing the responsible thing for the environment and public health, energy savings and less pollution.



I recently had a very scary experience of witnessing a CFL bulb shoot sparks from my son's bedroom ceiling light fixture. I was in the kitchen and saw what almost looked like lightning reflected off of the glass over a hanging wall print in the hallway outside his bedroom and the light lit up the hall, dining room and the kitchen and immediately, a horrid smelling smoke started pouring out of the top of his bedroom door. I ran as fast as I could in our small home, to grab the fire extinguisher right outside his bedroom in the linen closet and nearly simultaneously hit his light switch to off. It couldn't have been more than 15 to 20 seconds tops from the time I heard the bulb blow and saw the sparks. Yet his bedroom, the hallway the hall bathroom, the dining room were already filled with thick smoke. As soon as I hit the light switch, the sparking stopped, but the smoke continued to emit for pperhaps a minute longer.



I am LUCKY that I had an attic fan! I quickly ran to the dining room, opened the door to the patio and turned on the attic fan.



The bulb was less than two years old.



At first, I thought I was merely the unlucky rare person to see a freak thing with a defective bulb. My son started looking up online if the smoke was toxic, all while I was busy trying to clean his room and get all the cloth ( bedding, curtains) clean to rid them of that nasty smell.

THIS is the article he found:

PLEASE bookmark it and read it. It is LONG, even by my long post standards, but I think very important.

http://www.thebriefingroom.com/archives/



He discovered an article that told us ( from reading the attached link) what we saw may be a common method of the end of life for such light bulbs.



And we learned that they are far from SAFE for the environment OR public health.



After spending two hours with an attic fan on late at night, having to take off all bedding and clean the entire room from top to bottom, I still worry about traces of that bulb in his room.



We replaced all the light bulbs again. Now I have the old style bulbs back. And until we can't find them anymore, that's what I am going to use.



The risk of fire and mercury poisoning IMHO are not worth the few dollar a year savings (and if the bulbs don't REALLY last any longer than the others, you're not saving much anyway)



If I had not been right there, I have no doubt there would have been a fire. Right after turning on the attic fan, I wanted to get that bulb out of the house to prevent even the tiniest bit of smoke or contents to escape, and the light fixture was so hot I burned my fingertips. I am surprised it did not crack.



That smoke smell stayed in my nose for days, and I had to depend on my husband's nose to tell me if he could smell it in our son's room because..and I'm serious..all I could smell for two days was that horrible smell of that light bulb, whose smoke filled half my home in under a minute.



This was not an off brand bulb, but a Sylvania CFL light bulb that was supposed to last 10 years.



There were two other bulbs in the fixture. One of them appeared to look fine, the third bulb had a tell-tale blackened bottom that appeared to indicate that it was not far from going as well.



How many of you have had any similar experience?



Has anyone had a CFL bulb actually catch fire?



I am angry. I am worried about public safety.



I wonder why none of the environmental organizations whose newsletters I read had a thing about any of this?



I cannot now, in good conscience promote the use of those bulbs and in fact, I think that UNTIL they improve the technology, I will DISCOURAGE their use.



So, I want to POLL All here to try to discover just how common something like this is?

Who has had a similar experience?

OR give your opinions or knowledge on this matter.



I would also like to hear from people who have been using these bulbs for more than a year or two to see how many of you have had them already go out, and explain how they went out.



Thanks.How many people here have had a CFL bulb expire and fill their house with horrid smoke?Wow- I had a similar thing happen, but as usual didn't investigate it as thoroughly as you did (I did, however, use it as ammunition in our on-going debate over these bulbs, which I have to admit I hate- from their appearance to the light they throw, I just don't like them. Shallow maybe, but I've got to live here and I'm very sensitive to my light sources in long, grey winters :) When one died on us, my smoke alarms went off. I was cooking and my first thought was that something was burning, so I was checking out the kitchen while the smoke grew. At the time we had just come here and were in a 2200 sq. ft condo. I opened all the windows and doors, had on all the fans, and it still set off *all* the alarms. At the time, I was just kind of embarrassed, and felt bad for disturbing my neighbors. We had the wiring and lighting checked because my thoughts were toward preventing an electrical fire. One more reason I just can't seem to like these bulbs...How many people here have had a CFL bulb expire and fill their house with horrid smoke?another reason not to like those horrid things...



thanks for the info, mama.How many people here have had a CFL bulb expire and fill their house with horrid smoke?Thanks for sharing that! That would freak me out.



I can't use those bulbs in my house because my daughter and I have epilepsy and their light triggers our seizures. It's truly awful. It also triggers my migraines. I am really concerned that they are phasing out the availability of incandescent bulbs. Then what?How many people here have had a CFL bulb expire and fill their house with horrid smoke?I remember a few years ago, when government regulators were asked how to deal with this issue, they responded with %26quot;Run out of the room%26quot;.



Seems they haven't improved the design much in the interval.How many people here have had a CFL bulb expire and fill their house with horrid smoke?Thanks for the heads up. I'll pass it along to all my contacts.

.How many people here have had a CFL bulb expire and fill their house with horrid smoke?Yikes.



I used them in an auto-on lamp during a three week trip. I had a house sitter looking in but could easily had severe damage.



For anyone with even mild chemical sensitivity, it could be completely debilating after exposure.



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You know, I hadn't switched over for the most part, when they came out. I used some older halogens, but not many CFLs. I did a little googling %26amp; it didn't sit quite right with me. Maybe the hyped sense. Also, mercury gave me images of fish poisoned with it. The idea of toxic clean up - sounded like it was being pushed before it was ready for market. Didn't like the light output at all. I guess that funny feeling was right %26amp; my %26quot;laziness%26quot; paid off.



To the person with seizures, that's just plain scary - for them to become common use, you couldn't visit people?



I started reading the article, %26amp; all I can say, is a hope this information gets out. This is not a solution. 2% is a great savings, but not when it's going to cause more damage in the long run. The problems are much deeper than even the smoke %26amp; burning up.



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Edit:



I've sent out an email. Now I can wait for a 2nd experiment. How long will it take for the email to come back to me in chain form? How long from then to reach snopes?