Another reason CFLs are still just totally not worth it to me.

what are the other reasons?

it may look like a lot of steps but essentially they are saying, open a window, clean it up well and wash your hands when your done. not really that much trouble for the rare occasion that you may accidently break a bulb.

Just to put this in perspective:

Light bulbs are powered by electricity. Electricity comes from power plants, and in the U.S., that means coal power plants. Burning coal puts mercury into the atmosphere, where it ultimately gets concentrated in the tissues of long-lived animals at the top of the food chain (think predatory fish, birds, and mammals, including humans). Using 1 inefficient incandescent bulb for a year 2 to 3 times as much mercury in the environment as is in a single CFL. In addition, if CFLs are properly recycled, that mercury WON'T end up in the tissue of the fish you eat.

Try this another way: let's say you break 1 CFL per year. (I've used them for years, am mucho clumsy, and have never broken one, but still). Then let's say you inhale, slurp and munch ALL of the mercury out of the broken CFL (this would be quite an accomplishment). You then have consumed about the same amount of mercury from the CFL as you would if you ate sushi and/or tuna fish once a week for that year.

Mercury is a serious environmental hazard, but the way to deal with it is to reduce coal emissions. Absent political change in Washington (where the current administration has blocked regulations requiring coal-burning plants to control mercury emissions), the number 1 thing you can do is use light bulbs that consume less electricity, including CFLs.

Here's another reason to use them.

My neighbor is police officer, and he explained to me that most domestic intrusions are crimes of convenience. That is to say, a house presents an opportunity to a would-be thief when it is unlit, and on a busy street. Other than locking your doors and living at the end of a cul-de-sac (statistically the lowest for break-ins, I'm told), the next best thing you can do is leave a porch/driveway light on at night. This makes your house less convenient than the house that isn't lit.

After my neighbor's car was stolen and my garage was ran-sacked by some teenagers, I decided to put CFLs in my outdoor fixtures and leave them on.

I don't know whether I have deterred any thieves. I haven't had any problems since leaving the lights on, and I feel a lot better about protecting myself with less wasteful lighting.

I prefer CFL's that are encased in an outer bulb of some sort - it protects the inner loop from damage and as a bonus looks more like a normal bulb.

"living at the end of a cul-de-sac (statistically the lowest for break-ins, I'm told)"

Cul-de-sac's are actually less safe than traditional streets (be it streets on a true grid or windy streets). The primary reason is that there is no foot traffic or vehicle traffic outside of the residents on the cul-de-sac. It makes it much easier to load up a vehicle with somebody else's belongings when there are so few people to see it.

More on the Cul-de-sac...

My husband had replaced a number of light bulbs with CFL's before I moved in - in the bathroom (where we have yet to replace the original over-the-mirror light bar), the light is so glaring that I try to avoid using it. In the living room, I had to go back to an incandescent bulb for the lamp next to my chair so I could actually see what I was trying to read.

Now, after reading the Not Martha post, I find that if I break one I will have to have plastic bags or canning jars, paper towels, duct tape and extra vacuum bags handy, will have to round up 2 dogs that don't mind worth a sh**, do something with my indoor cats, run around shutting off the heater/AC, open windows... I'm with ARC - not worth it.