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artificial light sources that reproduce all the wavelengths of the vis- ible spectrum are the incandescent bulb and the halogen lamp. Check this out for yourself, if you like, by doing your own spectral analysis with the back of a CD in a dark room.' First, turn on an incandescent lamp and you can see the whole visible spectrum per- fectly reproduced and all the colours looking rich and luminous. Then turn on an FSFL instead and you will see the colours looking much more faded and the spectrum being fragmented by curious lines here and there which are actually gaps where certain wave- lengths are missing. A class II lamp gives an even more distorted spectrum. Here you see clearly the three colours separated into distinct bands and how the red and the green overlap to produce yellow. The intermediate wavelengths are missing altogether. The white or warm-white light from the new indium-gallium- nitride LED lamps is also a composite light produced by a combi- nation of red, green and blue. using incandescent light instead or by switching back to DC (which could be done by a local converter), a new technology has been introduced during the 1990s: electronic high-frequency (HF) ballasts that increase the switching on-and-off rate from 100 or 120 to up to 60,000 times per second! This HF technique gives the impression of a more even light-flow, since it is so rapid that the FL does not have time to go out between pulses. It is now being used more and more in class I and II FLs, including most "energy-savers" (which, in that case, are marked "electronic" and light up gradually instead of with a flicker when you turn them on). Whether or not this HF light is really as good for us as man- ufacturers claim, remains to be seen. Torkel Morgell, founder of the Stockholm Association for Ecological Technology (SET), says that all AC electricity disturbs the hydrogen atoms in the body and that speeding up the frequen- cy doesn't exactly make it more restful or healthy.‘ Problems with Flicker Electrical Hypersensitivity If we all had our own or local power gen- Of the growing number of people who erator, we could be using low-voltage direct have become electrosensitive (ES) and expe- current (DC) everywhere and not just in cars. rience various symptoms like eye irritation, Instead, we have alternating current (AC), skin rash, headache, dizziness, nausea, which is used to keep power lines from over- fatigue, breathing difficulty, irregular heart- heating ad oo mh pover eingioxton | The only artificial |e. . when working wit computes distances. This use of high-voltage AC is light sources that too—FL, in fact, being the second most rng AC fields ae rareand usually weak | F@PFOdUce all the | soe eot okay with incandescent bulbs. One of the problems with AC is that when wavelengths of the Two separate studies, at the National it is used to power electric lights, the light Tel Institute for Working Life in Stockholm and intensity fluctuates in synchrony with it at visible spectrum Umea respectively, found that the elec- are the incandescent bulb and the halogen lamp. twice the AC rate: 100 times per sec- ond in a 50 Hz power system (as in Europe and Australia) and 120 times per second in a 60 Hz system (as in North America). In incandescent lamps, this modula- tion is fairly small because of the tung- sten filament that keeps glowing between pulses; but in FL tubes pow- ered by conventional magnetic ballasts, the variations are much bigger, result- ing in continual flicker. This flicker is not seen by the eye until it slows down towards the end of the tube's lifespan, but may nevertheless be perceived sub- liminally by the body and the brain. ered lights, the ESs he tested had fewer symptoms and felt better, In a study on healthy people of various ages, Kiiller and Laike but all the electrosensitives whom I have talked to personally, as (1998) at the Lund Institute of Technology found that even though well as representatives of their organisation here in Sweden, FEB, subjects couldn't actually see the flicker, many still preferred the say that they don't feel better with HF; some even suspect it of non-flickering light source, and that about 40%, mostly younger —_ being the cause of their problems, since these started around the and less addicted to alcohol and nicotine (indicating a more alert same time that HF was introduced in their offices. nervous system not dulled by age or intoxication), were more sen- Considering the fact that many ESs also react to cellphones, sitive to flicker and reacted with decreased alpha brain-wave which clearly don't flicker, and to low-voltage halogen lamps, activity, increased speed and more errors in performance.* They which due to their thicker tungsten filaments flicker even less than trosensitives (ESs) they tested also seemed to be more naturally sensitive and reacted more strongly than others to flicker from FL or computer screens as well as to other sensory stimuli such as unexpected sound and touch.° Unfortunately, however, some have over-interpreted these results—which appeared very conveniently just when the lighting industry was trying to pro- mote the new HF technology—and now see HF ballasts as the solution to all ES problems.’ Roger Wibom, responsible for the Stockholm study, claims that when switching to HF-pow- 8 also mention other studies—such as the ones by Wilkins et al. GLS lamps’ but instead have transformers that can radiate strong (1989), linking flicker from FL to headache, eye strain and gener- magnetic fields, there must certainly be other factors involved. al stress; by Colman et al. (1976), finding that autistic children According to biochemistry professor Per-Arne Ockerman, MD, became more distracted and stuck in repetitive behaviour (a sign who, with more than 35 years' experience in medical research, has of stress or trance) under FL than under incandescent light; and by successfully been treating ES and other environment illnesses,"° Zaccaria and Bitterman (1952), whose subjects preferred FL tubes there seems to be a strong connection to toxic overload in the powered by DC to those powered by AC. body." These toxins could in some cases even come from the FL But instead of solving the problems with flicker simply by tubes and computers themselves, since both may emit various visible spectrum are the — and the APRIL — MAY 2003 NEXUS +37 The only artificial light sources that reproduce all the wavelengths of the incandescent bulb halogen lamp. www.nexusmagazine.com