When I worked as a prison guard the whole world came to a standstill when some mercury was spilled on the lobby floor of the entrance to the prison. No one could go in or out until the hazard team came to clean it up. Yep, in the 'olden days' I could have slipped a sheet op paper under the balls of mercury and we could have got back to work. I also played with mercury as a child and I 'ain't dead yet', as they say.
In the movie industry they used entire tubs of mercury when they wanted to film a scene of an actor sticking his hand through a mirror, kind of like a 'through the looking glass' thing. But the health and safety police outlawed that practice.
I am wondering how they determine the life expectancy of these light bulbs? About 4 1/2 years ago I replaced every bulb in my house (all 6 of them; I have a small house) with the new bulbs. Yep, right on cue every bulb burned out within a 24 hour period last week. Who plans this stuff? Gotta go to Home Depot and hope they still take the old ones for safe recycling.
