Something just didn't sound right when I read this from Patrick McIheran:

He reports a story from a Maine newspaper about the woman who did that, broke the bulb and got referred to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection for advice on cleanup. After all, those babies contain mercury, and the state testing guy who came by found six times the safe level in the bedroom of the woman's house where the bulb broke.
...
The state specialist recommended that the homeowner, Brandy Bridges of Ellsworth, Maine, "call an environmental cleanup firm, which reportedly gave her a 'low-ball' estimate of $2,000 to clean up the room. The room then was sealed off with plastic and Bridges began 'gathering finances' to pay for the $2,000 cleaning. Reportedly, her insurance company wouldn’t cover the cleanup costs because mercury is a pollutant.

I know they contain mercury, but it's not like mercury is radioactive or anything.  They've been in thermometers for years, and those thermometers have much higher concentrations than what appear in CFL bulbs.  As it turns out, a little common sense would have told both the Maine woman and Patrick that clean up is much more simple than that:

The government's Energy Star program says the amount of mercury in a compact fluorescent bulb is so small that there's no immediate health risk if it's cleaned up properly.

The program's advice is to sweep up the pieces – don't vacuum them – and put them into a sealed plastic bag. Wipe the area with a damp paper towel to pick up the fine shards and particles, and put the towel into the plastic bag as well. If weather permits, open the windows to ventilate the room. Treat the bag and its contents as hazardous waste, and recycle appropriately.

We all know that environmentalists are quick to jump to conclusions based on shoddy evidence... but that doesn't mean everyone should be doing that.  The rest of us should be a little smarter.