Eco-friendly bulbs damage skin?

Energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulbs have been touted as eco-friendly for good reason, but could be harmful to human skin, new research suggests.

Scientists from Stony Brook University in New York found that chipping or cracking the phosphor coating used on the familiar coiled bulbs allowed ultraviolet light to escape, according to CBS News. Most compact fluorescent bulbs “have cracks in the phosphor coating, probably due to the fact that the coating is brittle and has trouble making the tight bends required to make these bulbs compact,” said Miriam Rafailovich, the study’s lead author. “As a result, we observed, by eye, defects in nearly all the bulbs we studied.”

Skin cells exposed to the damaged bulbs showed the same damage as those exposed to ultraviolet light, Rafailovich said.