Glastonbury, like nearly every town and village in the UK, is about to suffer an annual outbreak of flashing. It will start in the high street and spread all over town – maybe even to your garden or front room.
Around three in every 100 people with epilepsy have photosensitive epilepsy. Various types of seizure can be triggered by flashing or flickering light: tonic-clonic, absence, myoclonic and focal seizures – all disabling and some dangerous.
Christmas-tree lights that are sold to the public do not have to comply with health and safety regulations. They can flash at any rate, so they can and do cause people to have seizures.
My 21-year-old child, for one, can no longer go out of the house from November until January because of the danger of suffering seizures as a result of flashing Christmas lights in shops and front gardens. Those seizures may continue for days following just one exposure. Just imagine being locked in your house for three months every year and unable to shop or socialise. Many people assume that epilepsy is now controllable, but 20% of epilepsy patients have intractable seizures – seizures that do not respond to treatment.
So this year, when you switch on your Christmas lights on – please realise that if you set them to flash you are actually ruining Christmas for some. Set them to continuous burn and not flash. Then we can all have a merry Christmas.
Richard Newman
Glastonbury, Somerset
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