Fluorescent Lights & Anxiety

Despite suspicion that electrical sources including fluorescent lighting contribute to anxiety attacks and a host of other medical conditions, no governmental agency or research has specifically linked fluorescent energy with anxiety disorder.

Significance

• Electric and magnetic fields (EMFs) are invisible energy fields related to the production and transmission of electrical power or wiring and lighting of buildings, including fluorescent lighting.

Identification

• Electrohypersensitivity (EHS) is a condition where individuals experience negative health effects when surrounded by devices emitting electric, magnetic, or electromagnetic fields.

Research

• The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), an arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, studies the effects of EMFs on humans. Although NIEHS acknowledges a link between childhood leukemia and EMFs, no definitive research has shown a
  connection between fluorescent lighting and anxiety.

Theories/Speculation

• Dr. Magda Havas, Associate Professor of Environmental and Resource Studies at Trent University in Ontario, Canada, asserts a link between EMFs' and anxiety, depression, irritability, hyperactivity, asthmatic episodes and other illnesses.

Effects

• A grassroots group called the Canadian Initiative to Stop Wireless, Electric and Electromagnetic Pollution believes that EMFs from sources like fluorescent lighting induce anxiety by causing "the adrenal glands to excrete an abnormally greater amount of cortisol and adrenaline." It is believed this excess adrenaline may lead to irritability, anxiety or hyperactivity.