• You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community, you will have access to additional post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), view blogs, respond to polls, upload content, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free, so please join our community today! Just click here to register. You should turn your Ad Blocker off for this site or certain features may not work properly. If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us by clicking here.

CFLs Cause Cancer

Mal12345

Permabanned
Joined
Apr 19, 2011
Messages
14,532
MBTI Type
IxTP
Enneagram
5w4
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
http://swansenreport.com/2012/07/28/watt-cfls-cause-cancer/

A report from a German study finds that the purported environmentally friendly compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL’s), have cancer causing chemicals that are sent out when you switch on the light in your home or office. The report goes on to say that the bulbs should not be left on for extended periods of time due to the poisonous materials emitted by the CFL’s.
 

Cellmold

Wake, See, Sing, Dance
Joined
Mar 23, 2012
Messages
6,266
Oh well im fucked then. Our house has been full of these for years and there is one right now next to me which ive been using for years as well, directly shining onto me.

Of course as we know cancer is always there, it's just whether or not the cells get triggered. But this looks bad for me and my family...

I knew there was a reason to complain about these pathetic bulbs which barely give off enough light to read by.

*Puffs on the end of a CFL bulb* Well im too old to change...
 

Werewolfen

New member
Joined
Jun 21, 2008
Messages
286
MBTI Type
INFJ
Enneagram
5w4
I've been reading articles about CFL's for a few years and their health hazards. I can't bring myself to switch back to the regular old style incandescent Edison bulbs that I grew up with because of the savings on the power bill. It's a gamble I'm willing to take. I'm partial to the 13 watt CFL bulb and that's mostly what I run throughout the house. In my kitchen I use a 4 foot twin T-12 fluorescent tube light fixture (80 watts total) but the rest of my rooms I use 13 watt CFL's.

For the amount of bright light they emit from such small wattage combined with their energy efficiency , I'll probably continue to use them. I normally use desk lamp fixtures and keep them in the corner of the room so I'm not close to the light bulb.
 

Cellmold

Wake, See, Sing, Dance
Joined
Mar 23, 2012
Messages
6,266
I've been reading articles about CFL's for a few years and their health hazards. I can't bring myself to switch back to the regular old style incandescent Edison bulbs that I grew up with because of the savings on the power bill. It's a gamble I'm willing to take. I'm partial to the 13 watt CFL bulb and that's mostly what I run throughout the house. In my kitchen I use a 4 foot twin T-12 fluorescent tube light fixture (80 watts total) but the rest of my rooms I use 13 watt CFL's.

For the amount of bright light they emit from such small wattage combined with their energy efficiency , I'll probably continue to use them. I normally use desk lamp fixtures and keep them in the corner of the room so I'm not close to the light bulb.

What about LED's?

Now I know this is going to sound convenient and full of spurious bias, but I started having extremely bad migraines from the age of 14....not long after my mum had started phasing out our old lightbulbs for these ones, literally I was 13 and the week of my birthday I remember her installing some in my room and others.

However this is just a random idea and I am by no means claiming that these were the cause...but it is suspiciously coincidental.

But....then again it could just be paranoid bullshit on my part.
 

BlueScreen

Fail 2.0
Joined
Nov 8, 2008
Messages
2,668
MBTI Type
YMCA
What about LED's?

Now I know this is going to sound convenient and full of spurious bias, but I started having extremely bad migraines from the age of 14....not long after my mum had started phasing out our old lightbulbs for these ones, literally I was 13 and the week of my birthday I remember her installing some in my room and others.

However this is just a random idea and I am by no means claiming that these were the cause...but it is suspiciously coincidental.

But....then again it could just be paranoid bullshit on my part.

I suffer similar problems with long term exposure to fluorescent lights and have read a bit on it. It's like my brain is stuck in first gear working under them.

I've read about a few effects to do with the light spectrum. Apparently the flickering effect can also come from the way your eyes handle the more discrete spectrum of the lights. Apparently having sharp spectral peaks of differing intensities in different regions of the spectrum can confuse the sensors in the eyes and pupil can end up oscillating between two different apertures. I also read a study which suggested bright light with an obviously artificial spectrum could be interpreted by the body as complete darkness, and working under such light in offices during the daytime could mess with a persons circadian rhythms causing sleep problems at night and sleepiness during the day.

I'm not sure if anyone really looked into all this stuff or thought about the austics, epileptics and other fluorescent light sensitive people before filling schools and workplaces with different types of fluorescent lighting to save power.

I've noticed some white LED lights are like brain signal jammers. I'm not sure if they are the ones with only discrete red, green and blue lines or the ones which have flicker. I'm hoping the next generation of lights ends this problem.
 

Randomnity

insert random title here
Joined
May 8, 2007
Messages
9,485
MBTI Type
ISTP
Enneagram
6w5
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
Ugh they didn't cite the original study at all. I will try to find the actual research....can never trust what reporters say about the science.

edit: according to another article, the author was Peter Braun. However, I was unable to find anything by Peter Braun related to this research in PubMed or google scholar, and neither article gives more than the author's name.

Their report advises that the bulbs should not be left on for extended periods, particularly near someone’s head, as they emit poisonous materials when switched on.

Peter Braun, who carried out the tests at the Berlin's Alab Laboratory, said: “For such carcinogenic substances it is important they are kept as far away as possible from the human environment.”

The bulbs are already widely used in the UK following EU direction to phase out traditional incandescent lighting by the end of this year.

But the German scientists claimed that several carcinogenic chemicals and toxins were released when the environmentally-friendly compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) were switched on, including phenol, naphthalene and styrene.

Andreas Kirchner, of the Federation of German Engineers, said: “Electrical smog develops around these lamps.
(from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/8...t-bulbs-contain-cancer-causing-chemicals.html)

I wouldn't be that surprised if those chemicals were released (lots of manufactured things release nasty chemicals, particularly when new), but I'm skeptical that it's in high enough concentrations to "cause cancer".

(side note: phenol compounds are in perfumes and cold medicines, naphthalene is what's used in mothballs, and styrene is found in many many plastics including disposable plates etc. Which is not to say that they aren't carcinogenic, but the dose and method of exposure are both extremely important to determine risk, if any)

If anyone is able to track down the original research, that would be helpful.
 
Top