How dangerous is it if the gas from an energy saving (spiral) light bulb escapes while in use?

I have been using this light bulb for a while without any problem. All of a sudden the bulb made this hissing sound and lots of white smoke was released into the air. It had some chemical smell to it too. I unplugged the lamp and put it outside. I opened all the windows and had a fan pushing air out of the room.
How dangerous are these light bulbs if the mercury gas escapes from them? Is there enough gas in one light bulb to be dangerous? Should I worry about my other energy saving light bulbs? What makes the bulb break up like that? I had my toddler in my bed when this happened. Should I be worried about her breathing this stuff? We got out of the room within seconds, but we still breathed some of it.
Sorry for the multitude of questions: I’m worried.
Thanks to anyone who answers.
P.S. There was nothing other than the lamp shade around the bulb or on the lamp.

the exposure to one bulb should not be worrisome.

The MSDS sheet from a mercury vapor lamp is attached below.

1 Comment »

  1. Comment by PS — January 30, 2010 @ 3:58 am

    the exposure to one bulb should not be worrisome.

    The MSDS sheet from a mercury vapor lamp is attached below.
    References :
    http://www.gelighting.com/na/business_lighting/education_resources/environmental/downloads/msd/msds_mercury_vapor_lamps.pdf

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment