Fluorescent lighting, headaches and eyestrain

This article is concerned on how illumination affects eye strain and headache on human beings. It is known
that exposure to harsh fluorescent lighting can cause fatigue of the eyes. There are two characteristics of artificial
lighting, the first one is, the lighting from the lamps controlled by conventional choke ballast with two starters, the
switch start and the electronic start and the other one is, the new high-frequency lighting. The variables used are
luminance, color rendering index, luminous efficacy, color chromaticity, and the phosphor itself.

As for this study, there are variables that are obtained which will influence the characteristics of artificial
light. The lighting conditions were assigned differently on each variable. To support this idea, the study used
conventional switch start, electronic start circuit, and electronic ballast to compare the concepts of each variable. The
switch and electric ballast was altered by its circuitry. White phosphor was interchanged with a Cool white phosphor
which also gave an effect to the study. As the phosphor increased, the rate of color rendering index will escalate as
well. Color rendering can be described on how a light source makes the color of an object appear to human eyes and
how well subtle variation in colors are revealed. This can be measured from 0-100 percent to indicate how accurate
the “given” light source is at rendering the color in comparison to the “reference” light source. Luminous efficacy is a
measure of how well a light source to produce visible light. Not all wavelength of light are equally effective to
stimulate human vision. The retina of every single human being has a limitation of 100 Hz. Going beyond on this
stipulated demand, light will start to flicker on anyone’s vision. As stated in the study, the higher the frequency of light
stimulation, the more continuous the appearance of flashes of light is. In addition to this, another factor that affects
the illumination of the area is the luminance. The quality of the reflected light is highly reliant to the surface area of the
location. Furthermore, it is also important to take note that temperature of the chromaticity has an consequent effect
to the human vision. In this study, the right color of every area must be appropriate to its environment. Color
temperature can be depended on the person based on their personal choices. Be that as it may, the chromaticity of
general lighting lamps greatly affects human range of view. Color temperature are indicated as warm and cool.
Temperature values that are greater than or equal to 4000 Kelvin are described as the cool tones. Neutral tones are
seen at a the range of 3500 Kelvin. Warm tones are visually seen on a thermal reading that is lesser than or equal to
3500 Kelvin. It is experimentally proven that the illumination of the area does not directly cause of headache and
eyestrain. It is concluded that the lighting will increase the throbbing sensation on the head. Incandescent lights that
are in the color of cool white are preferred on workplaces as it is possible to lessen eye fatigue and continuous pain
on the head.