Dear Friends,
The new energy bill just being signed today as we speak has in it a provision
that will phase out incandescent lights in favor of florescents over the next
4 to 12 years. I have just become aware of the provision through a Dec. 17
article in USA Today article "It's Lights Out for Traditional Bulbs," by Paul
Davidson.
This provision is devastating to myself and others with photosensitive
disabilities. I have a photosensitive complex partial seizure disorder
triggered by the low flicker rate in florescents, strobe lighting, and
unmodified computer monitors. There are several disability populations
adversely affected by the flicker in these lights including lupus, ADHD,
autism spectrum, epilepsy, and other autoimmune and brain injuries. Persons
with deafness are also affected as the "dirty noise" of florescents may
degrade infrared listening devices. To these patient populations, the
mandatory florescent law would constitute of denial of access, with no
alternative solution.
If you feel so lead, will you contact by phone or email your disability
advocacy groups, congressional representatives today (www.congress.gov) and
ask them to correct this discriminatory portion of the Energy bill? Denial of
accessibility to all facilities, employment, restaurants and even their own
homes to people with these disabilities is an unheard of encroachment of civil
rights similar to the dark ages before the ADA was signed into law. There
would be a huge public outcry if we passed a bill taking away curb cuts or
other disability access to facilities. Here, under this misguided portion of
the Energy Bill, incandescents will disappear leaving us no choice in our own
homes. A medical exemption would probably not be a solution due to the
profitability factor, and denial of access to government and other public
utilities still remaining.
I am having a terrible time now getting someone to hire me under my Vocational
Rehabilitation, medically certified accommodation request for incandescent or
natural alternative lighting. If incandescents are removed from the market,
it will be sunlight or candlelight. There will be no practical work or
leisure options if this portion of the bill is allowed to stand.
How ironic that the good our environmental movement, of whom I have been a
staunch supporter, seeks to do, is now on the verge of damaging persons with
disabilities. They will also be harming the environment as much as the coal
companies through the addition of untold amounts of mercury in these bulbs
being as an energy solution.
We would appreciate your request to your representatives that this portion of
the bill be amended as a civil rights violation, depriving persons with these
photosensitive disabilities from equal access under the law. It would be an
easier solution to fix it in this manner than as a result of an Americans with
Disabilities Act lawsuit.
Thank you so much,
Margaret Holt Baird, Esq
"They are even becoming mandatory in some countries -- a little troubling according to the Daily Mail, which reports that health experts in the U.K. say the green bulbs can cause migraine headaches or other disconcerting symptoms in many people."
"According the U.K.'s Migraine Action Association and other health organizations, the lights also cause headaches, as well as nausea, dizziness, and even physical pain for those suffering with lupus, according to the study.
"In both the United States and the United Kingdom, traditional incandescent bulbs are set to be completely phased out by 2012. "
"Such recent health concerns around energy-saving fluorescent bulbs might be another reason to push research into production of LED-based lighting options, which are even more efficient than CFL lighting, and even more durable, with a single bulb potentially never burning out. Such LED-based bulbs are available now, but at per-bulb costs that dwarf those of the relatively expensive CFL bulbs."
http://journals.aol.com/kmc528/Lifeasweknowit/entries/2007/03/01/preserve-your-health----become-an-outlaw/1555
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