Trishah Dee Woolley, M.A., Spring Lake, NJ

Trishah Dee Woolly, M.A., Diagnosis: Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome

I did not know I had a sensitivity to fluorescent lights when I was growing up.  I was always tired in school, had difficulty seeing the board even with glasses, and was generally just a poor student.  My grades improved in community college where I was only in classrooms for an hour or two.  But working jobs, especially office jobs, were very difficult.  After working one office job for several weeks I almost drove off the road going home because my eyes hurt so much and my vision was so blurry I couldn’t see the road.  I was only 24 years old.  After I left that job and my eyes no longer hurt, I put it all together and realized the culprit was the fluorescent lights.

I worked for myself a lot in my 20’s.  Was able to get through graduate school in my 30’s.  And I had an office job, of all things, in my 40’s where they let me build a “roof” out of paper umbrellas over my cubical.  But then they moved and I lost my job and well… that was that.  I now work for myself again, this time as a web designer.  I still use an old CRT computer monitor because the flat screens are fluorescent lite.  All the bulbs in my house are incandescent, and the bulbs in my home office are all incandescent grow-bulbs, the kind used to keep plants alive… because they just make me feel good 😀

As I’ve gotten older, my sensitivity has become worse.  I can only be in fluorescents now for maybe 30-40 minutes before the headache starts.  I am already concerned because they don’t make CRTs anymore.  And now I’m going to lose the only lighting source I can work in?

I am appalled at my government for enacting a law that will essentially make me blind in my own home or be forced to use candles and flash lights which are a very expensive lighting sources.  I should have a choice of how to save money and the environment.  Tell me how much I need to conserve and I’ll do it… but don’t damage my health and my ability to make a living in my own home!

Signed: Trishah Dee Woolley, Spring Lake, NJ