In 2023, The Minnesota Legislature passed a ban on the sale of certain lamps and lamp ballasts that contain mercury and are less energy efficient. The ban will take effect in stages, beginning 2025 and expanding in 2026, and includes linear fluorescent lamps, which are common in many commercial office buildings.

What does this mean for your business? 

You can continue to use fluorescent tube lamps you already have, but you won’t be able to purchase new ones after the ban takes effect. As existing fluorescent tubes burn out, they’ll need to be replaced with LED lighting.

Converting your entire office or building to LEDs can be a good way to reduce your electricity costs. Energy Smart, a free program available to Greater Mankato members, can help you plan your lighting upgrade and connect you with available resources, utility rebates, and grant funding to lower upfront costs. Contact Energy Smart at www.mnenergysmart.com

You can learn more about this change in the blog below, drafted by GMG Advocacy Intern, Hunter Jordan.

For decades, Minnesota has been working to decrease the mercury pollution levels within the state. Because of this, fluorescent lighting has been under scrutiny by the Minnesota legislature due to its mercury contents. As of 2025, the law started to take effect. For both consumers and businesses, it is important to look at why Minnesota has decided to flip the switch from fluorescent light bulbs and make the move towards LED lights.

Fluorescent bulbs contain on average 4mg of mercury vapor per bulb. Fluorescent lamps contain up to 15mg of mercury vapor per lamp. This may look like a small number, yet just that amount of mercury can be harmful to a human. The element of mercury isn’t harmful by touch, but it does have major harm when inhaled as a gas, which is the problem of these bulbs and lamps.

Mercury is known as a neurotoxin, which means many of its effects are to your brain. Some of the potential harms are tremors, mood swings, insomnia, muscle atrophy, headaches, poor performance on tests of mental function. Luckily, the amount of mercury from one broken bulb is not enough to cause significant harm to an individual. Still, too much exposure over a long period of time is enough to cause previously stated harm.

Mercury isn’t just harmful to our bodies; it also poses risks to the environment. After mercury vapor gets released into the air, it settles into water or onto land where it can be washed into a water source. Once this occurs, microorganisms change it into a far more toxic compound known as methylmercury. This compound builds up in fish as well as animals that eat fish, pushing into our food supply. This is where most exposure to mercury happens and is the biggest factor in Minnesota’s ban.

On top of being hazardous, fluorescent lighting is also very energy inefficient compared to their LED counterparts, which are mercury-free. LED lights last up to 3x longer, making them far more cost-effective. In fact, the energy saving aspect alone is projected to save Minnesotans nearly $72 million per year on utility bills. This figure doesn’t consider the amount of money that is being saved from product spending.

This fluorescent lighting ban is not brand new to Minnesota as of today. At the start of this year, the ban already started taking into effect, with the sale of screw and bayonet-base compact fluorescent bulbs being banned. On January 1st of 2026, the rest of the law is set to take effect, with the sale of pin-base linear or compact fluorescent lamps being banned as well.

For consumers, this ban does not mean that owning any type of fluorescent bulbs will become illegal. The law specifically outlaws the sale of any newly produced fluorescent bulbs, which means stores are still able to sell out all of their currently stocked fluorescent lighting. However, after the current stocks are sold out, no one will have the ability to purchase any fluorescent lighting. After time, the fluorescent light market will shift out and be replaced with LED lights.

Thankfully, there is no need for anyone that owns or relies on fluorescent lighting to panic, as there is nothing preventing the continued use of fluorescent lighting. The biggest thing to remember is when disposing of any fluorescent bulbs, it is crucial to take the proper steps to recycle the product to keep yourself and the environment from harm.