CFLs and Skin Cancer…..Seriously?
Burn Baby Burn!
It’s 6pm the night before the prom and you stare at yourself in the mirror. You realize that no matter how much makeup you put on, it’s apparent that your pasty white skin is the result of all those long days studying indoors so you could get into MIT, rather than hanging out on the beach like the rest of your friends. All the tanning salons are booked solid through the weekend for the last-minute party rush and those tanning sprays made you look like a carrot the last time you used it. What do you do?
Being a future MIT alum, you craftily Macgyver together a rig of CFLs and toast yourself for 10 hours underneath to make it to the ball in time to claim the crown of Prom King.
Now you already know that those long fluorescent tubes used in tanning beds share the same genealogy, but did you know that they also carry similar hazards?
A study by the Health Protection Agency in the U.K. showed that some compact fluorescent lightbulbs, which have a visible coil emitted ultraviolet (UV) radiation above the recognised safety limits. Basically it’s saying that those lights that giving you a tan. Now that would be a good thing if you needed it, but sitting in front of one for 8+ hours a day is definitely more than you should get.
About 20% of the CFL bulbs tested emitted UV-C radiation which is more harmful than the more common UV-A or UV-B, and and it’s the same kind that’s used in hospitals to kill germs, and can cause DNA damage, leading to skin cancer.
The highest levels of UV radiation, about an inch away from the bulbs, was the same as exposure in direct summer sunlight, the agency said.
Now this doesn’t apply to all bulbs, but the most common bulbs do have this problem. So stop sitting so close to the light, cuz that burning sensation you feel in your eyes may or may not be just simple eyestrain. Oh well, on the bright side, I guess it gives me a legitimate reason to take more breaks during work…
I think I’ll stick to LEDs for my office lighting needs…
[Via The Guardian Via The Health Protection Agency]
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Posted December 21, 2008 - Filed In LED Information, LED News
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