[Greenbuilding] studies on CFLs and health issues

[David Bergman]

Has anyone seen any studies regarding side effects of or problems due 
to CFLs or LEDs? There seem to be anecdotal stories aplenty of CFL's 
causing migraines or skin rashes or cataracts, or being dangerous for 
diabetics, and then there are stories to the opposite that say there 
is no evidence of any of these types of problems.

So I'm trying to find out if there have indeed been any studies that 
prove the case one way or another.

The case of there not being proven evidence (is there another type of 
evidence?) is not necessarily damning to the anti-CFL argument. I 
often promote the Precautionary Principle, which in essence says that 
safety has to be proven, not the opposite (i.e. the existence of 
risk). But I think that occasional unsubstantiated anecdotes -- if 
that's what's at play here -- may not cross the threshold for 
invoking the Precautionary Principle.

(I'm not talking about the mercury issue here; that's been pretty 
well dealt with.)

It's probably apparent that I would love to be able to say the risks 
either don't exist or are too small to matter relative to the 
environmental and health risks arising from greater energy 
consumption for non-efficient lights. But, really, I'd just like to 
have solid information to draw conclusions from.



David Bergman  RA   LEED AP
DAVID BERGMAN ARCHITECT / FIRE & WATER LIGHTING + FURNITURE
architecture . interiors . ecodesign . lighting . furniture
bergman at cyberg.com    www.cyberg.com
241 Eldridge Street #3R, New York, NY 10002
t 212 475 3106    f 212 677 7291  
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