# Fluorescent tube lighting

> Ballast-driven tubes measured 20–100 mG (2–10 µT) at 15 cm, falling to at most 30 mG (3 µT) at 30 cm — relevant because the fitting is often directly above a desk or bed rather than at arm's length.

- Canonical URL: https://emfbase.com/emitters/fluorescent-lighting
- Collection: Sources & emitters
- Record id: `emitters:fluorescent-lighting`
- Status: verified
- Last verified: 2026-08-12
- JSON: https://emfbase.com/api/emitters/fluorescent-lighting
- Also known as: fluorescent tube EMF, strip light EMF, CFL EMF

## Key values

- **Category:** elf magnetic
- **Emission bands:** Power frequency; Electronic ballast switching
- **Environments:** home, workplace, school
- **Duty cycle:** Continuous while lit; magnetic ballasts hum at the power frequency, electronic ballasts add a switching frequency in the tens of kilohertz.

## Field strength by distance

- **15 cm:** 20–100 mG — Measured range — Measured range at 15 cm from the fitting (2–10 µT) in the EPA's 1992 survey of 60 Hz appliances, dominated by the ballast rather than the tube. [nrc-1997-appliance-fields, epa-1992-appliance-fields]
- **30 cm:** 0–30 mG — Measured range — The strongest fitting measured 30 mG (3 µT) at 30 cm; the weakest was indistinguishable from background. [nrc-1997-appliance-fields, epa-1992-appliance-fields]

## Mitigations, most effective first

- **Mount the fitting at ceiling height rather than in a desk or under-cabinet lamp within 30 cm of the head.** — Normal ceiling separation puts the ballast beyond the distance at which it is distinguishable from background.
- **Measure with an instrument rated above 2 kHz if the fitting uses an electronic ballast.** — A power-frequency gaussmeter reads near zero at the ballast's switching frequency, producing a false negative.

## Measure with

- ELF gaussmeter (power-frequency magnetic field)
- Intermediate-frequency magnetic field meter

## Related records

- [LED lamps and low-cost drivers](https://emfbase.com/emitters/led-lighting): The switch-mode driver inside a cheap LED lamp can put measurable high-frequency harmonics on the circuit and produce visible flicker; well-filtered drivers do neither.
- [Household background magnetic field (50/60 Hz)](https://emfbase.com/emitters/household-background-magnetic-field): Away from appliances, homes typically sit below a few milligauss; the WHO's epidemiological association with childhood leukaemia begins at a daily average of 3–4 mG (0.3–0.4 µT).

## Sources

- `nrc-1997-appliance-fields` National Research Council (US), National Academies Press (1997). *Possible Health Effects of Exposure to Residential Electric and Magnetic Fields, Table 2-3: magnetic-field strengths of common household appliances*. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK232734/table/ttt00003/ — peer-reviewed, link checked 2026-08-12
- `epa-1992-appliance-fields` U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Radiation and Indoor Air (1992). *EMF in Your Environment: Magnetic Field Measurements of Everyday Electrical Devices (EPA 402-R-92-008)*. https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPURL.cgi?Dockey=000005EP.TXT — government, link checked 2026-08-12

Data licence: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Dataset version 2026.08.1. Retrieved from EMFBase, https://emfbase.com.

This record is reference data, not medical or legal advice. Regulatory limits, scientific guidelines and precautionary values are labelled separately and answer different questions.