Flourescent lights and migraine
 

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


--
Timothy Murphy
e-mail (80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland

Flourescent lights and migraine
 

By "daylight" flourescent, do you mean high-frequency ballasted?

If yes, the reduced flicker (particularly if they work with VDU's) may
well make a difference.

Flourescent lights and migraine
 

"Timothy Murphy" wrote in message
...
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,
(b) the belief that daylight bulbs cause less problems?


--
Timothy Murphy

No no no, it must be the flour affecting her. If only they had
installed fluorescent lights instead G

AWEM

Flourescent lights and migraine
 

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember "Andrew Mawson"
saying something like:

No no no, it must be the flour affecting her. If only they had
installed fluorescent lights instead G

Perhaps the daylight ones are self-raising?
--

Dave

Flourescent lights and migraine
 

On Thu, 21 Dec 2006 16:26:29 UTC, " wrote:

By "daylight" flourescent, do you mean high-frequency ballasted?

No, 'daylight' colour temperature.

However, they may have installed new fittings that are now high
frequency and there has been a reduction in flicker.

Or it could be a placebo effect.

Or the flour.
--
The information contained in this post is copyright the
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Avenue Supplies, http://avenuesupplies.co.uk

Flourescent lights and migraine
 

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

Flourescent lights and migraine
 

On 2006-12-21 16:14:20 +0000, Timothy Murphy said:

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

One of the many triggers for migraine is the flickering especially from
the ends of tubes
of fluorescent lights which just have a simple choke as opposed to a
high frequency ballast.

I suffer from migraines periodically and this can be one of the
triggers although usually combined
with other factors such as overdoing it or certain food types.

In general I am not at all comfortable with low frequency fluorescent
lighting, especially if faulty or
if the tube has a low persistence phosphor and greater tendency to flicker.
This is especially noticable if the tube is off to the side in
peripheral vision.

CRT monitors are another one - anything less than 75Hz is uncomfortable.

As regards the lighting colour I am less sure, although for a living
space, I do not like the
unnatural light that comes from fluorescent lamps. For a workshop,
the situation is different.

For your wife's colleague's case, I think it may be more likely that
the daylight tube fittings have high frequency
ballasts which remove flicker. It appears to be that flicker is the
more common trigger.
However, migraine is highly individual, so almost anything is possible.

Flourescent lights and migraine
 

On 21 Dec 2006 16:56:22 GMT, (Andrew Gabriel) wrote:

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.



I remember a guy at work saying he had an infection of his inner ear ..cant
remember the name but he said flourescent lights gave a him a weird feeling in
his head ......I went in to a new Tesco Express near me recently and I
experienced a funny feeeling in my head when I was in there .They had rows and
rows of very bright flourescent lights so maybe they affected me as well..


Stuart

Flourescent lights and migraine
 

Timothy Murphy wrote:

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

The problem with a lot of fluorescent lighjting installations is the
sheer quantity of light. I dont know why but people tend to go nutty
with huge tubes all over the shop and expect it to be comfortable. A
single 4w fluorescent light for the whole room is a great way to handle
migraine, with the fitting concealed so theres no direct view of the
tube. The light just washes over the ceiling.

I dont think its fluorescent lights per se, but rather the usually bad
installation of them.

Andy mentioned tube end flicker. When fls are installed in trough or
shelf style, the tube isnt visible at all, and even with old ballasts
the level of flicker is a tiny percentage of the total light output,
and the 50Hz flicker at each end is mixed to give 100Hz like the rest
of the tube. With directy visible tubes the whole situation is worse,
as you're seeing not only high intensity light but also 50Hz flickering
high intensity light at the tube ends, which can be not a good thing
for migraine.


NT