<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> At 02:54 PM 4/29/2000 vicki wrote: >Here's what I'm going through: >I am very light sensitive and glare sensitive, which is common >with Fibromyalgia. I lost my job 9 months ago when the office >closed down. It had fluorescent lights, but they had a cover. > >After sitting there all day I noticed I would get a little blotchiness >(reddish & blotchy) of the palms (which were down, facing the >computer keyboard), redness of the eyes, and blotchy neck & >a little on the nose (Poikloderma of the neck and Rosacea of the >nose - more prone on the neck) - dilated blood vessels. I have researched flourescents for the color class I've taught for twenty years. The cool white flourescents they use commercially are hard on people in general. Those who work all day under UNSHIELDED flourescents have more malignant melanoma skin cancer even than those who work outdoors. Also, blue light at high lumens (very bright, like most flourescent lit places) is hard on our endocrine system and causes us to secrete too much ACTH. Red light at low lumens (like most of us have at home) is also hard on us, but not as much so. I use 300 and 500 watt halogens at home and in the studio. They have improved my mood, and my SADS, immensely. (How many light bulbs does it take to change an art prof? :) Flourescents are very hard on those who suffer migraine and those with epilepsy. So it would make sense that they might also be hard on fibromyalgia, or anything else. I have a student with ADHD who cannot take a test under flourescent. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, I made the university change the flourescents in my office and the main studio I teach in to halogens. Students sure liked it. Imroved their color immensely. That's why the primary lighting in museums and galleries is mostly halogen. When you chart the visible spectrum emmited by incandescant light, it makes a full curve, though not a curve that is congruent to the daylight curve. But when you chart the visible spectrum emmited by flourescent, it does not make a curve. You will see only a few spikes here and there, mostly in the blue short wave range. There are great gaps of wave lengths that are simply not there with flourescent. Hence the poor color recognition, especially in the long wave (red and yellow) lengths. This depriving us of most of the visible spectrum for great periods of our lives is not a good thing. This is well known, but the flourescents are so cheap that industry and govt are not interested in using something better. If you want to see a great improvement in the behavior of grade school children especially, get rid of the flourescent lights. This also cuts down dramatically on the number of childen who need Ritalin. This, and the proper colors for the purpose, is well spelled out in Mehnke's respected book on how to light schools and public buildings. Sorry this was so long, but i felt I pared it to the simplistic bone as it is. -vance