We are a group of charities working with people with health conditions which can involve some form of light sensitivity.   The conditions include the auto-immune disease lupus, the genetic disorder Xeroderma Pigmentosum (XP), certain forms of eczema and dermatitis, photosensitivity, and many others.   People with light sensitivity arising from these conditions suffer severe and painful reactions to non-incandescent lighting, including to fluorescent low-energy lightbulbs (compact fluorescent lightbulbs or CFLs).   They can only tolerate incandescent bulbs.

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Aren’t incandescent bulbs being phased out?    Yes.   Gordon Brown recently announced that they would be phased out in the UK by 2011.   We understand that this will be done through the Retailers Initiative, set up by DEFRA and the Energy Saving Trust in 2005, which is persuading retaile rs and manufacturers to withdraw incandescent bulbs from sale.   Curry’s and the Co-op have become the first retailers to announce that they will no longer stock these bulbs.   The European Council of Ministers, in its Council Conclusions on 9^th March declared:  

“The European Council ……. invites the Commission to rapidly submit proposals to enable increased energy efficiency requirements on office and street lighting to be adopted by 2008 and on incandescent lamps and other forms of lighting in private households by 2009;”   (Annex 1 Page 20.)

   This was widely presented as a ban on incandescent bulbs – although we note it does leave open the option of simply banning the more inefficient types of incandescent bulb.   The European Union'sPreparatory Study on domestic lighting, has now started - take part at eup4light.net  (preparatory to bring forward proposals for mandatory regulations.)

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What will the ban mean for people with light sensitivity conditions?   The consequences of a ban on incandescent bulbs will be   -    People with the conditions outlined will be unable to use electric light in their homes and will be unable to go anywhere else where electric light is in use.   They will suffer severe disruption to their home life, family life and social life, and increased painful ill health (which may be long-lasting) when they are forced of necessity on occasions to be exposed to CFLs.  Their access to places they can currently access, either because these places have incandescent lighting or because they are able to take their own incandescent lamps or incandescent bulbs with them, will be removed.   This includes access to employment, including self-employment based in the home, places of worship, cultural and educational activities and   visits to friends and family.   This will result in total social exclusion for vulnerable sick and disabled people.   We believe these effects will run directly counter to many other stated policies of this Government, including: · the Disability Equality Duty, which came into force on 4^th December 2006 ·  the Green Paper on Welfare Reform published in January 2006, which aims to cut the number of IB recipients by 1 million over the next 10 years by helping long-term sick and disabled people stay in employment, or move off benefits into employment.

How many people will be affected?

  We estimate that tens of thousands of people may be affected as a result of the health conditions set out above.   We have also been contacted by people with ME, many of whom also have bad reactions to fluorescent lighting, including CFLs.       A person with ME has set up an organisation called “Right to Light”, which is also campaigning to raise awareness of this issue.   They are willing to provide information to, and campaign for anyone whose bad reaction to modern forms of lighting is not covered by the other charities listed here. Right to Light can be contacted at righttolight@yahoo.co.uk   We have also heard anecdotal evidence that people undergoing cancer treatment and people on anti-psychotic medication can become sensitive to fluorescent lighting.   We believe that a full health impact assessment should be carried out before this policy is taken any further. Top of Page

What does the Government say about this?     DEFRA officials have been aware of this issue since October 2006.     They said “ we will be working closely with the Department of Health to avoid any unintended consequences”.   However we are not aware of any such work being undertaken, and the Chancellor has subsequently announced the ban.   We are looking for specific and robust details from the Government on how people with light sensitivity conditions will be protected.   Top of Page

What does SPECTRUM want to achieve?   We believe that any solution which protects the rights of people with light sensitivity conditions must achieve the following:  

1.           People with sensitivity conditions must be able to continue to purchase incandescent bulbs for their homes.  

Are there any energy efficient alternatives to CFLs?   Light-emitting diode (LED) technology is not fluorescent.   However many people have contacted us to say   they also have bad reactions to LEDs.   Also this technology is still under development and lightbulb-equivalents not currently available.   Highly energy-efficient incandescent light bulbs are currently being developed by the company GE, the leading global lighting manufacturer, which hopes to market them in 2010. We understand these bulbs will match the energy efficiency of CFLs.   We do not yet know whether this new type of incandescent bulb will be suitable for everyone with   light sensitivity, but it is an encouraging development. (see weblink   http://flashlightnews.org/story643.shtml )  Top of Page

Are the Green Movement aware of this issue?

"The written declaration   is intended as a broad political signal to   demonstrate the desire of the European Parliament for the Council and Commission to   prioritise the bringing forward of legislation on energy efficiency for lighting. This is especially important   in order to ensure that it does not go the way of so many other targets (i.e. unmet). There are evidently a great many issues to consider in the intelligent design of any legislation, with a need for certain exceptions / exemptions   to be built in. As you point out in your correspondence the need for cooperation between politicians, civil society and industry is paramount here and the hope is that any exemptions/exceptions would be short term, allowing for the development of new appropriate technologies and applications   in the long term.   Users like yourself would seem to have a very good case for special consideration within the legislation and please be assured that Caroline will do all she can to ensure this happens.”

Right to Light are contacting key people in the Green movement.   They hope to set up a meeting where Green activists and people with knowledge of light sensitivity and disability issues can engage in constructive dialogue.

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What is happening in other countries? Are people campaigning there? Yes we are in touch with campaigners in Austrialia, Europe and the U.S.A. As a result of campaigning by / and on behalf of light sensitive people in Califorina, Assemblyman Lloyd Levine has rewritten his bill banning incandescent lightbulbs.   It now aims to make all bulbs more efficient.   See http://leginfo.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/asm/ab_0701-0750/ab_722_bill_20070604_amended_asm_v97.pdf 

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