Home › Blog › Going Green Alert: CFLs Damage Skin progenitor Cells

Who knew that going green would be a problem? I must say that despite living in the greenest city in the US (Boulder, CO), my wife resisted putting in Compact Fluorescent bulbs when I bought them a few years back. When I finally sneaked in a few this past year, I have to admit that the light didn’t go with a Victorian house – it looked a little like 1960’s bad office lighting. This latest study is interesting as it too rained on the CFL parade, as it found that cracks in CFL’s that happen during manufacturing allow harmful UV rays to escape. Pretty much all CFL brands had these flaws. These UV rays of the CFLs damage skin cells and have been known to damage skin stem cells as well. More concerning was that the chemicals used in sunblock made the CFL skin cell damage worse. Who knew? You have to think that while my generation was cursed in later life by our penchant for baby oil and a good tan, the lathered in SPF 50 kids may get the same problems from basking in all that “green’ CFL glow!

Chris Centeno, MD is a specialist in regenerative medicine and the new field of Interventional Orthopedics. Centeno pioneered orthopedic stem cell procedures in 2005 and is responsible for a large amount of the published research on stem cell use for orthopedic applications. View Profile