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Environmentally friendly light bulbs ‘can give you skin cancer’
By JENNY HOPE - More by this author »
Last updated at 17:31pm on 4th January 2008

Energy-saving light bulbs can be bad for your skin, doctors are warning.

The fluorescent devices produce a more intense light and can aggravate a range of existing problems, especially in those with light-sensitive conditions.

Eco-bulbs are due to become compulsory in British homes within four years. But campaigners want the Government to allow an opt-out so people with health problems can still use old-style incandescent bulbs.

There have been growing concerns that low-energy light can trigger migraines, as well as dizziness, loss of focus and discomfort among those with epilepsy.

There have also been complaints from sufferers of lupus - an auto-immune disease causing many symptoms including pain.

The latest warning was issued by Spectrum - an alliance of charities working with people with lightsensitive conditions - and the British Association of Dermatologists (BAD).

Critics complain low-energy lights are either "cold" or "green," take up to a minute to warm up properly and because they are fluorescent, flicker.

Dr Colin Holden, president of the BAD, said: "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."

Andrew Langford, of the Skin Care Campaign, said: "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."

Spectrum, which is running a campaign to raise awareness of the impact on health of switching to lowenergybulbs, says as many as 340,000 people could be affected.

Last week, the Migraine Action Association was inundated with calls from sufferers who linked attacks to exposure to the newstyle lighting.

Spectrum is urging the government to allow incandescent light bulbs to be supplied to people with health problems, which would enable protection of the environment without penalising those unable to live with fluorescent lighting.

One option could be to allow the purchase of environmentally friendly energy efficient incandescent bulbs which GE Consumerand Industrial is currently developing and hopes to market in 2010.

The Lighting Association says modern low-energy bulbs give a constant flicker-free light, although a small number of health problems have been reported by people using cheap poor-quality varieties.

The Energy Saving Trust, the Government's body to promote energy efficiency, says we should buy only bulbs with the Energy Saving Recommended - ESR - logo.

Eco-bulbs are due to become compulsory in British homes within four years.

Not in my house they aren't.

Or are we going to have lightbulb police?

Not in my house they aren't.

Or are we going to have lightbulb police?

Aren't they going to stop making incandescent lamps and stop anyone selling them UK?

This I know is another subject where looking at the bigger picture makes you realise just how short-sighted this is.

In fact LED lighting will almost certainly be available in sufficient quantity at a sufficiently good cost of ownership price that the era of these "low energy" fluorescents is a transient one.

I would have thought 4kv spikes would be more likely to take out the electronic ballasts in these low energy things than the thermally decoupled filament lamps.

I use EE bulbs throughout the house except in the 2 rooms with dimmer switches as they don't work with them. I turn on and off all the time, the above described delay is true on some of the bulbs but not on others. ie, i have 2 lights in the hallway, one turns on immediately, the other only takes about 2 seconds to fire up. They both light adequately. I think the fuss around 'warm up' time is exagerated big time, certainly mind don't take a significant enough amount of time for me to be so silly as to leave them on at all times.

Fair enough if you have skin problems and they are a catalyst for that, don't use them - but otherwise it saves money if used as you use ordinary bulbs.

Since many people reckon the winters are going to get much colder in the next 10 years....you can expect many old people to just die...if they don't fall down the stairs first and kill themselves that is.

This I know is another subject where looking at the bigger picture makes you realise just how short-sighted this is.

In fact LED lighting will almost certainly be available in sufficient quantity at a sufficiently good cost of ownership price that the era of these "low energy" fluorescents is a transient one.

LED has to improve a lot, it's been touted for a few years as the future but you still can't buy a decent quality light output, you have a choice between a ghostly cold white and amber.

Quite true, if you use them in a very warm environment they have a fast warm-up time. The same is not true if you operate them in a temperature lower than about 12C. Fluorescent lights never really get going in cold temperatures...and no, I do not keep the heating on all the time....and with the gas bill going up 17% now, and an estimated 50% in a year or twos time, I expect a lot of people will knock the thermostat down to 10....if on at all.
Since many people reckon the winters are going to get much colder in the next 10 years....you can expect many old people to just die...if they don't fall down the stairs first and kill themselves that is.
And the energy saved isn't saved in winter...you just use the heating more to make-up the several hundred watts you lose from the incandescent lamps...as said previously. However, some politicians friend/s will make a killing selling them, and increase the amount of mercury in the water supply. So, if we do not die from cold, we'll have problems of madness from mercury in the water supply, and then there's the female hormones from the birth control pills, which is also not removed in the processing.....

I use EE bulbs throughout the house except in the 2 rooms with dimmer switches as they don't work with them. I turn on and off all the time, the above described delay is true on some of the bulbs but not on others. ie, i have 2 lights in the hallway, one turns on immediately, the other only takes about 2 seconds to fire up. They both light adequately. I think the fuss around 'warm up' time is exagerated big time, certainly mind don't take a significant enough amount of time for me to be so silly as to leave them on at all times.

Fair enough if you have skin problems and they are a catalyst for that, don't use them - but otherwise it saves money if used as you use ordinary bulbs.

Yes. But "ordinary" bulbs will be banned, soon. People will not have the choice.

Maybe there will be an increase in the use of gas lighting, candles, paraffin and oil lamps? (And resultant house fires?)

Hmnn. I actually thought about gas light a couple of years ago.

Gaslight with gas mantles actually provides a really rather nice light. Not only that, but in my "period" home (18thC, maybe older) it looks rather more appropriate than flourescent tubes!

Not sure it would cost any more than electricity either! (Mantles are pretty good at turning heat into light, and the heat isnt a waste anyway! Hey! Home heating with free lighting! Isnt that called CHP?? )

Aren't they going to stop making incandescent lamps and stop anyone selling them UK?