Guest blog by Rachel Mitchell, LightAware Charity
Marcus was a Management Consultant in a top UK consulting firm, a well-paid and fulfilling career spanning two decades. Despite pursuing a healthy lifestyle and having no existing health conditions, Marcus’ career was ended by the installation of LED office lighting. Within a week he experienced symptoms of intense ‘head pressure,’ not relieved by painkillers, nausea, and an overwhelming sense of needing to ’escape’ the new lighting. The symptoms worsened until Marcus had to cease working. The firm reluctantly acknowledged this was a light-sensitivity disability related to the installation of LED lighting, and occupational health was asked to propose Reasonable Adjustments.
The obvious solution would be to revert to traditional office lighting using alternatives to LEDs. For Marcus, and thousands like him, this is an entirely avoidable disability. Light-sensitive people could rejoin the workforce but for the availability of an alternative to LED lights. Without alternatives, occupational health is unable to support the growing number of people suffering from the effects of ubiquitous LED lighting in offices and homes.
Healthy people are forced into the disability benefits system because there is nowhere else to turn. Employment in LED-free environments is increasingly rare, and people like Marcus are pushed out of their career.
Light-sensitivity is a known problem
In 2008, the EU’s Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) estimated that there were around 250,000 individuals in the EU with underlying photosensitivity conditions. However, the report used narrow definitions of photosensitivity and excluded light sensitivity suffered by people with ME, migraine, autism, and other neurological conditions. The Spectrum Alliance of health charities estimated that over two million in the UK were potentially affected by the phase-out of incandescent light bulbs, based on data supplied by relevant charities and support groups. Even these figures do not include the occurrence of light-sensitivity in previously healthy individuals, like Marcus. In 2017, the European Commission’s Scientific Committee on Health, Environment and Emerging Risks (SCHEER) published a report about the potential health risks of LED lighting. It concluded that current research does not provide evidence for health hazards to the eyes or skin, but acknowledged ‘issues of flicker, dazzle, distraction and glare’ and the lack of long-term research, making continued monitoring important. The charity LightAware challenged SCHEER’s statement that ‘there is no evidence of direct adverse health effects from LEDs in normal use by the general population’ because it omitted to mention that ‘general population’ excluded the young, the elderly and vulnerable groups including the light-sensitive - one third of the overall population.
Solutions exist in law, but not in reality
In 2018, following campaigning by LightAware, a ‘photo-sensitivity’ exemption was incorporated into the EU Single Lighting Regulation, and brought into UK law. This exemption enables continued access to incandescent light bulbs for those who need them. Unfortunately, this exemption has not been adequately implemented by the government. The installation of LED lighting has resulted in the exclusion of light-sensitive people from society.
There is a caseload of employees placed on long-term sick pay as a result of employers lighting choices, and this will only increase. The human cost of this decision is playing out across the country, with many people now economically inactive as a result of an inflexible lighting policy. Occupational health advisors are asked to propose Reasonable Adjustments, yet without a systemic approach to disability inclusion it is left to individuals to advocate for individual accommodations. In reality, there are no Reasonable Adjustments to recommend, without inclusion of the light-disabled considered at the Building Regulations level, as was done for wheelchair users.
While there are no easy answers, it is vital to recognise light-sensitivity as an issue, and that its triggers are from changes to the working environment. LightAware campaigns for long-term research into the impact of LEDs on health, and support from occupational health is invaluable.
Lives should not be ruined by a choice of light bulb; safe lighting should be a human right.