14 DAY TRIAL // We are eager to hamper the global warming. Using energy-saving light bulbs we would consume just one quarter of the energy of conventional light bulbs, saving 2,000 times their weight in greenhouse gases (mainly carbon dioxide), worthing their five times higher price. Some complain the fluorescent bulbs are either "cold" or "green", warm up in a minute and flicker.
But the British Migraine Action Association warns that fluorescent bulbs have caused in 2007 epilepsy seizures in many patients, but also migraine attacks, while the British government is planning to forbid the sale of conventional light bulbs by 2011, turning UK into the first European country to remove traditional bulbs.
Epilepsy Action and other charities put the high risk of seizures from energy-saving bulbs mainly on the "flickering" effect. Also, patients with lupus, a chronic auto-immune disease provoking pain and extreme tiredness, experienced adverse effects. Now, another issue has been signaled by the British Association of Dermatologists (BAD) and Spectrum (a group of charities working with people with light sensitive conditions) about these bulbs: they could be bad for your skin. They produce a more intense light, turning more severe existing light-sensitive issues.
"It is important that patients with photosensitive skin eruptions are allowed to use lights that don't exacerbate their condition. Photosensitive eruptions range from disabling eczema-like reactions, to light sensitivities that can lead to skin cancer. It is essential that such patients are able to protect themselves from specific wavelengths of light emitted by fluorescent bulbs, especially as they are often trapped indoors because they can't venture out in natural sunlight," said Dr Colin Holden, president of the BAD.
"Incandescent light bulbs are the only source of electric light for many thousands of people with light-sensitive conditions. Add to this the thousands whose conditions or treatments may secondarily cause them to be light-sensitive, and you have a large number potentially being isolated in the dark. The Government simply must allow incandescent light bulbs to be available to these people, their families, friends and employers, and at a fair price," said Andrew Langford, of the Skin Care Campaign. Spectrum warns that about 340,000 people could suffer the consequences.