Environmentally friendly light bulbs 'can damage your skin', doctors warn

The Daily Mail (UK) ^ | 4th January 2008 | Staff

[sweetiepiezer]

Paging Big Al!!!!!!!!!!!!

[EverOnward]

I hate those “environmentally friendly” light bulbs. I waste my life waiting for those things to get bright enough to see anything. They’re worthless. I’d rather burn candles.

[hoosierham]

I would expect so if the diode output varies instantaneously with applied voltage,especially if half-wave rectification is used.

The problem seems to stem from the fact that incandescents filaments thermal mass moderates the light output to something very close ly approximating a steady glow.Connecting an oscilloscope to a photocell will reveal a residual 50 or 60 cycle variation in the output of incandescent but will show a fluorescent as being more like 100 or 120 flashes per second.The brain has to average out the bright flashes which accounts for the headaches.

It has been proven that having your computer or tv scanning the picture at 50 or 60 Hz is more tiring to the eyes and brain ;having such a computer screen in a standard fluorescent lit area adds to the problem.

I believe our bodies and brains were designed for an analog world and all these sampling methods which make the brain fill in the gaps,whether of light or music, cause un-needed stress.

[slowhandluke]

I was referring to skin problems and specifically eczema, not other autoimmune diseases...

This article, Low-energy bulbs 'worsen rashes', refers specifically to problems with some forms of eczema.

[timer]

Yes, “sick” buildings with fluorescent lights are that way because the 60 cycle/sec current makes them dim-bright-dim-bright and your brain “reads” your eye input about 40 times/sec. That means there is a constructive/destructive interference beat that your brain is constantly trying to adjust to. This causes severe headaches in people living under fluorescent lights as in grocery stores, offices. To wit, you don’t notice the changing light levels that happen faster than you can blink your eye but your BRAIN does. So, will these new fluorescent lights come with instructions on how to blink your eye 30 times/sec(see only the bright peaks)?

Also, the incandescent bulb, as a thermal source, puts out the whole visible spectrum whereas the fluorescent only puts out certain, specific wavelengths that SEEM white but aren’t. So, yes, these fluorescent bulbs cost far more(JOY to mfgrs)and use less energy/lumen; but your BRAIN(and skin cancer for some)pays the price.

So fellow Frers, we can show scientifically why these new screw-in fluorescent bulbs are bad news, and that these lawyers in congress are lobbyist-bought dummies(the blind leading the blind...). Get the word out...

[Veto!]

Thanks for taking the time to explain flourescent’s “bad vibes.” I will pass on the information.

[Robwin]

Ok, so some will suffer due to lighting policy. And? Do they not understand we all must make sacrifices in this time of crisis? Do it. Do it for the children.

[timer]

Yes, it’s a health issue, rammed thru congress w/o FDA even looking at it. Environmental lighting engineers or architects could tell them about the price your body pays for fluorescent lighting, but as always : MONEY TALKS and congress was bought by the lobbyists working for light mfgrs and recyclers.

Funny : recent proposal to use corpses in crematoriums for heating/electrical generation. This is EXACTLY a sci-fi story in analog magazine many years ago. Do you know anyone who has old analog magazines stowed away somewhere?

[Nowhere Man]

The problem seems to stem from the fact that incandescents filaments thermal mass moderates the light output to something very close ly approximating a steady glow.Connecting an oscilloscope to a photocell will reveal a residual 50 or 60 cycle variation in the output of incandescent but will show a fluorescent as being more like 100 or 120 flashes per second.The brain has to average out the bright flashes which accounts for the headaches.

It has been proven that having your computer or tv scanning the picture at 50 or 60 Hz is more tiring to the eyes and brain ;having such a computer screen in a standard fluorescent lit area adds to the problem.

I believe our bodies and brains were designed for an analog world and all these sampling methods which make the brain fill in the gaps,whether of light or music, cause un-needed stress.

I know my mother has always claimed that flourescent lighting was a strong contributer to her needed to wear glasses. When she went to school and graduated in 1956, the schools used incandescent lighting then but when she went into the working world, even then, it was mostly flourescent lighting. By the time she was 21, she needed glasses. I know myself, I'm very near sighted, I got glasses in third grade, I often wonder if flourescent lighting is a contributor, my school had those lights, it was the early to mid 1970's. I know in one of my experiments in my Radio Shack 150 in 1 Science Fair kit, you can hook a solar cell up to an audio amplifier and you can "listen" to various light sources, the sun has a nice "hiss" to it, regularl ight bulbs have a similar hiss but flourescent lights have a hideous buzz from the 60 cycle power.

BTW, I'm an amateur radio operator too.

[Veto!]

You know, timer, my congressman is Jay Inslee, a “progressive” leader on the left. Our community is very enviro-conscious. I’m going to contact his office and see if they’ll give me more info on this situation.

Analog magazines? Sorry, can’t help you there. Hope you find them. Scary about crematoriums!

[Elyse]

Funny, a friend of mine has eczema and hi Dr recommended to help clear his eczema he should sit under more intense light like the sun or fluorescent sun lamps...and it’s helped!

It is helpful for people that have eczema and psoriasis, unless they also have photosensitivity, then it can worsen the condition rather than help it.

http://dermnetnz.org/reactions/photosensitivity.html

[timer]

Also tell him to subsidize insulation. Instead of throwing money after THIS source, THAT source; to get out of the foreign oil narcotic habit, just INSULATE the living bejesus out of every home in america. The SUN does a perfectly good job of heating the air, why do YOU have to spend YOUR money heating it? Also, 3 KW of heat energy at that distant coal fired electrical generating plant only gets 1 KW to your home’s electrical panel, that lost 2 KW goes as waste heat in the thermodynamic process, CO2 exhaust, transmission line losses. Super-duper insulation gets rid of that 2 out of every 3 KW thermal loss(with electrical heating).

Example : thought experiment : suppose you have a 3 BR floor plan, 1500 sf footprint. 8’ high ceilings, 30’x 50’ interior volume; 2’ thick urethane skin all around for a 12’x 34’x 54’ outside dimension. Outside temp at 32 deg F, inside at 72 deg F(dT of 40). Urethane foam(2” thick w/silver foil)is rated at R7/”; thus 24” x 7 = R 168.

Now, taking the mid-line depth, 10’x 32’x 52’ as surface loss area(ignoring windows, doors for the moment), you get 10x64 + 10x104 + 32x52x2 = 640 + 1040 + 3328 = 5008 sf. Then 5008 x 40/168 = 1192 BTUH loss/hr. HEY, a person at rest(couch potato)puts out about 1250 BTUH. Thus, discounting doors, windows, infiltration; a couch potato can heat his own 3 BR house with his own body heat, and it’s FREEZING outside, his food bill becomes his heating bill; with 24” of solid(like a refrigerator)urethane high density foam insulation.

Sounds wonderful, until you look at the cost : $5/cf retail for urethane, then there’s installation(mat’l, labor, overhead/profit). That box-shell contains about 7000 cf x $5/cf = $35,000 mat’l(retail). Double that + 15% = about $80,000; WAY more than normally insulated walls, ceilings, floors cost in construction.

That’s where Inslee comes in : federal matching funds for home insulation remodels. Get that $80K price hammered down to 10% or $8K and it becomes worthwhile to practically every homeowner. Selling points : one shot price : your heating/cooling bill drops to ZIP for the life of the home, also, insulation is already an integral part of the construction industry, no foreign labor required, just make a whole lot MORE of it by american insulation suppliers. Also it means more new siding, roofing...basically a new “quilt” with new skin.

So, enough already with the hydrogen economy this, solar that, nuc this, windmill that, coal this, ethanol that...just INSULATE the living bejesus out of every home and that whole SOURCE thing dwindles in importance. Or, first plug the holes in your boat before you bail like hell....

As to the Sci-Fi story, the bottom line goes something like this : it’s a gruesome thought but uncle george, you light up my life...