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1992-09-10
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THE WEEK, Page 22HEALTH & SCIENCEBeware Halogen Bulbs
High-tech lighting may be as bad as sunlight for causing skin
cancer
As the ozone layer thins, people may spend more time indoors
to avoid the skin cancers and cataracts likely to result from
more ultraviolet light reaching the earth's surface. That
strategy could backfire. Like the sun, the high-intensity quartz-
halogen lights used increasingly in homes and offices emit
ultraviolet as well as visible light, and there is now evidence
that they, too, can cause skin cancer.
Two scientists at the University of Genoa, Italy, noted
that the rays coming from unshielded quartz-halogen lamps can
induce mutations in the DNA of bacteria. Since genetic mutations
are one cause of cancer, they decided to move up a few rungs on
the evolutionary ladder. They subjected specially bred hairless
mice to the lights 12 hours a day for a year and found that
every one developed skin tumors -- most benign, but some
cancerous. The research, reported in the British journal Nature,
involved only a handful of mice, so it was labeled a pilot
study. But the results were so striking that the authors
recommended installing UV filters on halogen lamps already in
use and requiring that all new ones come equipped with such
filters (some already are).