Oh, hello!
It's my second week working in a cubicle. Its seems that after lasts weeks exposure to the fluorescent lights above me, I have acquired a bit of a tan. I thought to myself: Should I be applying a decent layer of SPF before I come into work? And, if so, all you ladies out there may want to consider canceling your membership to Sunny Buns Tanning.
Although I may be a bit dramatic, I wanted to do a little investigating into the issue because, truthfully, my skin is still as white as it was in the January 3rd blizzard. However, I still would like to see what the effects of sitting under a flickering ultraviolet light will do to me over an extended period of time, so I searched the World Wide Web and came up with these disturbing facts:
1. “Fluorescent lights are certainly troublesome for some form of migraine and epilepsy. (The fluorescent light frequencys) aggravate brain waves, causing a photic response in the EEG (Electroencephalography). Photic stimulation was one of the ways to elicit the migraine response, or even cause an epileptic fit.”
www.hsibaltimore.com (Health Scientists Institute)
Cubicle: Now I understand that it may be easy to get an occasional headache from some high frequency light waves, maybe even a seizure of two, but I for one am not impressed, I need more evidence that my eight hour work day isn't being interrupted by the violation of my seasonal tanning schedule.
2. According to California Assembly Bill 1109 (2007) Section (e): “…Most fluorescent lighting products contain hazardous levels of mercury. Most incandescent lighting products contain hazardous levels of lead.
(www.newswithviews.com)
Cubicle: Alright, hazardous materials are one thing but I can't help but be skeptical when I hear the Green Thumbs in California whining about another ecologically friendly-gotta-go-green-must-save-the-environment-ice-caps-are-melting-nit-picky problem. I mean, come on tree huggers, what's wrong with a little mercury? So, I kept on searching.
3. Fluorescent, neon and halogen lights emit small amounts of UVR. These lights can be fitted with a filter or diffuser that absorbs the UVR. Although the amount of UVR emitted by fluorescent lights is small – 8 hours of exposure is equivalent to less than 5 minutes in the sub-tropics – it is important to remember that UVR’s effect on the skin is cumulative ie the sum of the minutes is important not just the number of minutes at each time. Cumulative UVR causes premature aging and skin cancer.
(http://www.sickamongthepure.net/uvradiation/fluorescent.html)
Cubicle: Now we're getting somewhere. After some serious searching, the experts have spoken. In my cubicle, in a fourty hour work week, I am being exposed to almost half an hour of harmful UV rays to my skin. It works out to be 1200 minuets of solid exposure time each year. I guess I don't need to go to Tahiti to get that tan after all.
Until next time...
If you tan for 4 hours a day during a 5 day vacation, guess how many minutes of sun that would be? 1200.
ReplyDeleteIf there is a 2 minute walk to your car every day, you are under the sun for 1460 minutes each year.
You get more UV from walking to your car than you do from your cubicle lighting.