Today my dad broke a fluorescent tube. There were drinks in the room where he broke it, so he is emptying all of the bottles/cans and throwing the empty ones away. Is this really necessary?

no it's not.  there isn't enough mercury in a case of CFLs or tubes to cause any harm in my opinion. 

All the hysteria from the mercury in fluorescent and HID lamps is unnecessary. The mercury content is too small to cause mercury poisoning.

The biggest danger is not from the Mercury, but from a sharp small piece of Glass landing into drink or food and them somebody drinking/eating it. This alone justifies the disposal of any drink or food that was standing open when the lamp broke

Don't forget pet water/food dishes if you have pets

The containers (cups, dishes, etc) can be just cleaned to guarantee that there is no Glass remaining on them, there is no need to throw them away



The Mercury that was in vapor form got in the air. The mercury that was in liquid form (if any) is in the phosphor. Open windows to vent the room air. Collect the phosphor with a damp paper towel and throw away. Do not vacuum it

If the lamp was on when it broke, most of the Mercury was vapor. If off, most is in the Phosphor

The Mercury content in one lamp, as is, is very unlikely to cause any health effects

When treated correctly (window opened, phosphor collected and discarded), the amount of Mercury remaining in the room after the procedure (of which only a tiny amount you will ever inhale), is less than the amount of Mercury that you could be getting into your body from other sources, such as eating fish



The Phosphor is probably not healthy either, but the main danger is that where thre is Phosphor there could also be fine Glass sharpnel present

The fear o mercury poisoning from an one broken tube is really a hysteria scam.
The real mercury problem is on places, where is not just a single or few lamps, but where large amount of lamps concentrate. So the waste from the manufacturing process and then the disposal sites. There we are talking about 1000's of lamps and that becomes a thing.
But with just a single lamp broken the most respect should be really with the sharp glass fragments, just because they are razor sharp and small, so likely to even fly rather far away.

The biggest danger is not from the Mercury, but from a sharp small piece of Glass landing into drink or food and them somebody drinking/eating it. This alone justifies the disposal of any drink or food that was standing open when the lamp broke

Don't forget pet water/food dishes if you have pets

The containers (cups, dishes, etc) can be just cleaned to guarantee that there is no Glass remaining on them, there is no need to throw them away



The Mercury that was in vapor form got in the air. The mercury that was in liquid form (if any) is in the phosphor. Open windows to vent the room air. Collect the phosphor with a damp paper towel and throw away. Do not vacuum it

If the lamp was on when it broke, most of the Mercury was vapor. If off, most is in the Phosphor

The Mercury content in one lamp, as is, is very unlikely to cause any health effects

When treated correctly (window opened, phosphor collected and discarded), the amount of Mercury remaining in the room after the procedure (of which only a tiny amount you will ever inhale), is less than the amount of Mercury that you could be getting into your body from other sources, such as eating fish



The Phosphor is probably not healthy either, but the main danger is that where thre is Phosphor there could also be fine Glass sharpnel present

All of the drinks were unopened. The room is in the basement where there are no windows.

he went really overboard  most ffluorescent tubes
have mercury about size of a ball point pen
 if lamp is on then yes most of it in vapor form
 even if it lost in the room.  it about mercury doesage
 of eating fish on your dinner plate.  i just wash those
full can of beer. It the  older 1938-1949 tubes that  you
need to worry about.

he went really overboard  most ffluorescent tubes
have mercury about size of a ball point pen
 if lamp is on then yes most of it in vapor form
 even if it lost in the room.  it about mercury doesage
 of eating fish on your dinner plate.  i just wash those
full can of beer. It the  older 1938-1949 tubes that  you
need to worry about.

The lamp was a 1995 unbranded (Philips made) F40CW lamp. The lamp was off when it broke.

No it cant. Ive broken plenty and I'm no more mad hatter than I was in the first place.