In the not-too-distant future, it looks like you’ll be able to handle your CFLs without worrying about the hazards of mercury.

While Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs (CFLs) have long been seen as a technology with significant potential to conserve electricity and reduce consumer energy costs, one of their main drawbacks has been public trepidation about exposure to this toxic element if a bulb happens to break. Now nanotechnology researchers may have developed a way to reduce this concern. According to an article in this week’s Science Times, experiments with microparticles of various elements including sulfur, copper, nickel and most notably selenium have demonstrated promising results when binding with mercury. Potential applications could weave “nanoselenium” into CFL packaging and special cloth with which to mop up breakage, even plastic bags for recycling spent or shattered bulbs.

This means one less reason not to make the switch to these spiral-shaped icons of energy efficiency. Anyway, you won’t have a choice beginning in 2012. As a consequence of last December’s energy bill, traditional incandescent bulbs will be phased out of use, beginning with the 100-watt bulb and ending with the 40-watt in 2014. This ensures that, while we may not necessarily know how bright the future will be, getting there will be a whole lot more efficient.