In article ,
Timothy Murphy writes:
My wife helps run a scientific institute.
A research worker (feminine) complained that
the flourescent lighting in her laboratory
gave her migraine.

The institute installed "daylight" flourescent lights,
which apparently improved things.

Is there any scientfic basis for
(a) the claim that flourescent lights can cause migraine,

Yes.

(b) the belief that daylight bulbs cause less problems?

No.

Fluorescent tubes which are near the end of their life can
generate 50Hz flicker, and this can give rise to effects such
as headache. Tubes don't normally continue to work for long
when they reach this state (normally only a day or so), but
it can also happen in the case of tubes with a manufacturing
fault, or some types of control gear which can keep a dead
tube running past the point where it should have been swapped
out.

Chances are that swapping out the tubes for new ones is what
fixed the problem. The colour is completely immaterial.

Use of daylight tubes is usually a mistake. There are some
rare applications where their use is desired, but for most
purposes where they turn up, this isn't the case and they
are the wrong choice on several counts.

--
Andrew Gabriel