Cleaning up toxic mercury from a broken compact fluorescent bulb is a lengthy process, especially when you follow Health Canada's protocol to the letter, but what happens if you don't?
Health Canada says the risk is still fairly minimal, but the true danger lies in the long term. "It accumulates in your body over your lifetime so you still want to mimize any exposure to mercury."
While Health Canada doesn't believe that a single CFL bulb is considered harmful, other governmental agencies have tried to figure out whether a single broken bulb can be a risk.
A 2010 report from the European Union is the most definitive, concluding that among adults, negative health consequences are considered unlikely.
However, the risk is much higher for children under six whose brains are still developing.
Due to insufficient data, they could not reach any conclusions about the health risks posed by a single broken CFL.
Parents, like Dawn Schwartz, think those results are concerning. "It would be really great to get more definitive studies done on that so that as parents, we're aware of exactly what's in our households."
Additionally, the same study also says that health risks to unborn children are negligible since very little mercury is able to reach the fetus when it is inhaled by the mother.
While no government body says kids are in danger from broken bulbs, they all agree that kids are the most susceptible to the harmful effects of mercury and say it is very important to follow a specific clean up protocol.
LED and halogen bulbs are non-mercury and contain alternatives that will remain legal after the 2014 incandescent ban takes effect.
Experts say that once the ban takes effect, manufacturers will likely broaden the household application of the bulbs and lower their price.
