Photographs show a foot injury caused by stepping on a broken CFL bulb.
As we discuss in another article, energy-saving compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) contain small amounts of mercury, and the remnants of a broken CFL bulb should therefore be handled and disposed of carefully according to recommended safety procedures. (Contrary to some wilder rumors, however, a single broken CFL bulb does not need to be dealt with by an environmental clean-up crew.)In March 2011, we began receiving the photographs of a gruesome foot injury displayed above, with accompanying text indicating the photos depicted the aftermath of someone's stepping on a broken CFL bulb. According to the text description, the hospitalized patient spenttwo weeks in Intensive Care, faced possible amputation of his foot, had his foot 'connected to a vacuum pump to remove continuously dead tissue,' and was facing a long recovery period.We do not know the origins of these photos or the nature of the injury they depict, but it seems unlikely they're the result of stepping on a broken CFL bulb. Mercury has long been used in a variety of industrial, medical, and home applications, and the effects of mercury poisoning are well documented, but we could find no information documenting that the infiltration of a very small amount of mercury into a wound would cause the extensive tissue necrosis displayed in these photos. (Even a 2000 medical journal article reviewing mercury exposure and cutaneous disease describes nothing like the phenomenon shown in these pictures.)It's possible that what these photographs actually capture is a case of necrotizing fasciitis, a severe type of infection that can destroy muscles, skin, and underlying tissue. Necrotizing fasciitis is a bacterial infection, however, not something caused by exposure to mercury.
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