Reply #48: You should seek help. Seriously.

[Tesha]

It *ISN'T* because "industry needs to offload its toxins"
that essentially all sealed electric arc lamps for the past
century or so have contained mercury. They contain mercury
because mercury works very well in helping to make an
electric arc easy to create and glow brightly once created.

Important hint: there were plenty of fluorescent lamps
manufactured before mercury was phased-out from
thermometers. And there are at least three other kinds
of lamps based on mercury vapor, all of which also pre-
date the phase out of mercury thermometers.

Tesha