Can we have our lightbulbs back, please?
Are the new lightbulbs unsafe??? This is from the UK....
Using environmentally-friendly light bulbs can be bad for your skin, say doctors.
The new energy-saving bulbs produce a more intense light and can exacerbate a range of existing skin problems.
Now it is feared that thousands of people may be unable to use electric light in their own homes, visit family and friends, or have access to employment and public services if the government's plan to phase out the normal variety of incandescent lighting goes ahead without exemptions.
The warning has been issued by Spectrum, an alliance of charities working with people with light sensitive conditions, and the British Association of Dermatologists.
It comes after the Migraine Action Association warned the energy-saving light bulbs could trigger migraines.
posted by GayandRight @ 8:19 PM
2 Comments:
The migraine meme has not been valid for several years. The old compact fluorescent lamps used a megnetic ballast, and they flickered. Virtually every screw-in self-ballasted compact fluorescent uses an electronic ballast, operating the lamp at several tens of thousands of cycles per second. This is WAY beyond any possibly persistence of vision issues would come in.
I am FAR from a defender of the new enery regs, and CFLs DO have some issues. But they now are generall sold with a phosphor that lets the lamp put out light that is virtually the same color temperature of a household incandescent lamp.
Most of the articles being written in criticism of the CF is based on old information, either due to sloppy research, or purposeful use of it in order to sell an article.
I use CFs every day for many different applications. I can take virtually any reader of your site into a space I have redone, and unless they look into the fixture, they just will not know the light source is fluorescent. Yes. They CAN be that good.
All this being said, I am a firm believer in the free market. Besides, one major lamp manufacturer has a lamp well on its way to market that IS incandescent, but is as efficient as a CFL on a lumens per watt basis. I, as a lighting engineer heavily involved in conservation-bsed projects, want every tool at my diposal that I can have. I do not need a bunch of lawyers with titles restricting my work so they can look like they are doing something.
The migraine issue is valid - I get migraines from them. Even though they have improved, there is still a little flicker that some people can detect and I'm one of them.
I just use a regular light in the room I'm in in the house. That cuts down a lot.
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