The daily grind in fluorescent-lit offices faced by many working carers might have become an even worse health risk.

The daily grind in fluorescent-lit offices faced by many working carers might have become an even worse health risk. Recent studies by German and Israeli scientists have found unintended carcinogenic effects from energy-saving lightbulbs, which are being rolled out en masse to help reduce carbon emissions.

Berlin’s Alab Laboratory claims that carcinogenic chemicals are released when the carbon-friendly compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) are switched on (e.g., phenol, naphthalene and styrene). Researcher Peter Braun said: “For such carcinogenic substances it is important they are kept as far away as possible from the human environment.” Further, Andreas Kirchner, of the Federation of German Engineers, said: “Electrical smog develops around these lamps... They should not be used in unventilated areas and definitely not in the proximity of the head.”

The German research follows claims by Israeli biologist Abraham Haim (a professor of biology at Haifa University) that CLFs can cause an increase in breast cancer rates if used late at night. He said that light from CLFs, which is bluer than that from ordinary incandescent bulbs, mimics daylight and disrupts the melatonin hormone cycle.

This is frightening news for working carers who spend hours daily hunched under desk-lamps and fluorescent office lights, and who are often forced to work at home or in the office after-hours at night, when their caring tasks for the day are finally complete.

The CFLs also contain mercury, which can be toxic to humans. “A report released in 2008 from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection revealed that when a CFL bulb is broken, it can release dangerously high levels of mercury into the air,” states freelance writer Ethan Huff. “In Toronto, city officials require people to dispose of CFL bulbs at special hazardous waste facilities because they don’t want the city’s landfills to become contaminated with mercury. While used CFL bulbs are not legally recognized as hazardous waste, they are treated as such because they pose serious environmental threats when broken and released into the environment.” However, the British Department for the Environment claims CLFs are safe: “the very small amount contained in an energy efficient bulb is unlikely to cause harm even if the lamp should be broken.”