ctsai89 is it really 33 million people though?

All the research I have read says that photophobia of non black body radiation light sources is estimated to impact about 10% of the population. So thats about 32-33 million folks in the US. Sound like a lot, but looking at the flip side of that statistic, 90% of the population is unaffected and doesn't think about the issue at all. Which is why this is such a difficult issue to raise awareness on.

Thinking from their perspective. After being told ceaslesly for years that they are bad for the environment for using incandescent and getting pro-LED lit slammed down their throat from everywhere from their hardware store to their power company, they spent hundreds of dollars outfitting their house with LEDs.. They are now emotionally invented in LED technology

This is true, and not only that, remember, there is a 90% chance that they are completely unaffected by this problem. And, while the impact is insanely minimal, LED lights DO use less power and last longer which does carry a benefit. The benefit is not worth the trade off inhuman suffering we experience, but to them. LED lights are 100% upside. And, unfortunately, we still live in a world where compassions and putting yourself in other peoples shoes is a very rare thing.

You have to have to take a nuanced approach and work on one person at a time, easing them into your viewpoint. I didn't mean you should literally go and say those words to a big crowd. You are/were in real danger of being labelled an alarmist and quack publicly.

100% agree. I feel the same anger you all do, but it needs to be tempered. In order to be taken seriously and effect change, the work needs to be done politely, respectfully, but also relentlessly. Like water trying to break down a dam.

Is there a way you can personally message me? I would like you to help me write a letter to the congress/government regarding all the effects from monitor, car lights, to lamps from LED on our eyes and try to convince them to do something about it. I am no good at writing letters (no kidding). But if you help me, I will get send it and possibly convince some of the people that are in the "dreEyeTalk" group to send them as well.

Lets have the conversation here. I have several letters I have drafted and written and am happy to share them. I am going to start posting them to my subreddit for use as well

      ensete

      Please do, if you do, I will share them with members in the facebook group called "DryEyeTalk" as well.

        degen

        by the way, regarding your "allergy" theory, have you heard of ocular rosacea?

            ctsai89 I have not. My allergy theory comes from my ENT (well, one of the 5 ENT's I have seen over time). They studied the Sinus/Allergy/Migraine connection a lot, and their theory basically went like this: Everyone has a "threshold" where a stimulus (light in our case) can cause a reaction in the brain leading to undesired brain activity (migraine, ocular muscle spasms, strain, etc). For most folks, this threshold is high enough that stimuli like lighting never crosses that threshold, so they never have any issues. For us, our natural threshold is much lower, so that same stimulus DOES trigger a response.

            His theory/statement was that allergies and other inflammatory issues lower thresholds even further, so even more stimuli cross is and trigger an attack. The two big "threshold movers" he talked about were weather (the link between migraines and weather is well known) and allergens.

                I have uploaded some of my letters to my subreddit, /r/lightsensitive for use for anyone who wants them. I am no ones poet and have not updated the BULB letter in a while, feel free to edit/modify and use.

                ensete

                I think there's pretty much only truth to that. I had dry eye/eye strain from my first LED monitor which was a macbook back in 2010 only for 3 weeks but I was young back then. My dry eyes/eye strain officially became a chronic problem 7 months ago when the weather got cold and all of sudden we were getting rains everyday here in southern California. THere are different pollens for every season weather. On top of that, some family member of mine brought home huge amount of flower and kept it in the house for 5 days making the house smell unbearable. My eyestrain threshold has been so low ever since, to the point where I am turning my screen down to 0% brightness + plus another brightness slider to lower brightiness + influx basically turning down blue light as low as possible. THe newest thing I am trying now is lowering the contrast to 30% lower than the default, this seems to help a bit more as well.

                So pretty much with the theory (if proven) in mind, the environmental supremacists/LED fanatics could legitimately claim that LED doesn't cause any problems and that we should have our auto-immune disorders fixed first.... am I correct?

                anyways I am going to take a look at your subreddit post now. Thanks a bunch!

                    ctsai89 the environmental supremacists/LED fanatics could legitimately claim that LED doesn't cause any problems and that we should have our auto-immune disorders fixed first.... am I correct?

                    I would not say thats the case. When people have a problem, you accommodate them. Light sensitivity is a disability like any other. If you were in a wheelchair, people shouldn't not build you a wheelchair ramp to save wood. It's not worth the effort.

                    Also, it's not sure our thresholds CAN be raised. Given the absolutely minimal environmental benefits, and the well document legitimate health hazards LED lights present, there is simply no reason to use them. The price in human suffering is not worth it. They are simply unaware of the effects that we suffer from, so they are forming their opinion from a place of ignorance. It is our job to educate them so they realize the benefits of LED's are not worth the suffering and damage they cause

                        I feel like the problem is that most people who have the same problem we do don't have as severe to the point where they have to turn the brightness level to below 0. I've talked to a few and some say "sure LED is too bright that's why I wear protective glasses and I'm fine now" they would stop right there and wouldn't give a damn or two about it beyond that.

                        How rare/common is it to have the threshold so low to the point of suffering like we are? I came across a site and it claimed 1/4000 people but I don't have the link of it anymore.

                          ctsai89 How rare/common is it to have the threshold so low to the point of suffering like we are?

                          From my research, roughly 10% of people suffer from this level of photophobia.

                            9 days later

                            Yesterday I learned that while you can still, from a few sources, buy regular old incandescent bulbs in EU countries, their import is banned since February 2016. So they really sell the rest now and it's declining each day. And you can't import them anymore. Not even from China. I advise anyone who lives in an EU country to stockpile now before it's too late.

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                            JTL

                            I would've looked forward to nothing from Hillary. Even if this is the only policy Trump is good on, it is better than nothing.

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                              Please do write your congressmen, and the president stating your desire to see the EISA restrictions removed. Ask them to reconsider The BULB Act (H.R. 2417) which removes these restrictions. This is a rare chance to get this done given the current administration we have.

                              4 months later

                              KM After further investigation I found out that FfT bulbs are indeed flicker free. BUT these bulbs are very sensitive to the input electricity. If the input is not perfect these will flicker and will give you a headache like you mentioned.

                              You should test that "Flicker free technically" bulb you bought with a UPS(disconnected from the mains to generate perfect input for the bulb, otherwise you will get the same input as the mains) or with a Voltage Regulator.

                              Let me know this works.

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                                  PuffyCloud I'd imagine using a pure sine wave double conversion UPS would help as well,, vs one that just filters the input electricity and switches to battery during an outage.

                                      JTL I was investigating a UPS a while back because we had very bad voltage fluctuations at our house and I wanted to protect sensitive electronics. All of the Cyperpower units and all of the cheaper APC units either a) no pure sine wave output or b) not fast enough response time (4-8 ms in Cyperpower units to switch to battery power, but pro APC units had very good 2ms response, which is enough)

                                      So if you want to regulate voltage through an APC you have to go for some of the more expensive and not entry level APC units.

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                                          Apparently the UPS has 0 ms transfer time 😮

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                                            dev