EPA “Cleaning Up a Broken CFL” – points to consider

From an insurance standpoint, this sounds like a potential nightmare for a restaurant, motel, hospital, extended care facility, retail establishment, and other places of public accommodation.

Here’s the EPA web site on CFL cleanup:

http://www.epa.gov/cfl/cflcleanup.html

The document to which they refer is in the post, above “EPA Instructions on CFL Cleanup”

Based upon the data in that document, the very first step is to “Have people and pets leave the room, and don’t let anyone walk through the breakage area on the way out”.

Then it goes on “Open a window and leave the room for 15 minutes or more”.

The third step is “Shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system, if you have one.”

The food supply of a restaurant would likely be contaminated and the clothing of any patrons could be the subject of a claim, based upon the procedure set forth in the bottom section of the first page.

Perhaps insurance underwriters may wish to review their policies to determine the extent to which they want to cover such liability as it applies to business interruption as well as the consequential damages.

With the local hardware stores, Wal-Mart, Lowe’s, and Home Depot selling them like popcorn and the State and Federal government subsidizing the sale of them, this risk exposure is going to get significantly worse before it gets better.

And it won’t get better until the manufacturers offer LED bulbs instead of the CFLs.

Perhaps you may wish to take a look at the “EPA Instructions on Cleanup” post to understand the magnitude of the implications in that procedure.

Who is going to reimburse your clients for the new clothing which they might need to replace that which is discarded in compliance with the EPA instructions?

Who is going to pay to decontaminate (replace) your food and office supplies?

Are these acceptable risks for your business to take?

These all add into the true cost of using CFLs, plus you still have to deal with the multiplicity of deleterious effects to one’s health and well-being.