Elaine, Ireland

I used to live an independent life with a love of the outdoors, animals and nature. I loved going for a run with my dogs in the evening after work. When I was 28 years old, I bought a Nintendo game for the long journey to Australia. It was backlit with LED. I immediately got a searing headache that quickly escalated to migraine. LED was easy to avoid back then and I did not think much more about it. I travelled in Australia for two years and only had to avoid a few supermarkets. On my return to Ireland in 2009, everything was changing.

In 2014 the monitors in my workplace were changed to LED. I could not tolerate them for a second. I was already working under LED lighting and living on painkillers and anti-sickness tablets. I thought that if I somehow could just keep going I would become immune, but I was wrong. I only got worse. I had no choice but to leave my job. That same week, in December 2014, the sodium streetlights outside my home changed to LED so I was confined to my house at night for a year.

I moved to the countryside to escape them in 2015 and now I find myself in the exact same position again. Due to the phasing out of all other light sources, most neighbours have converted to outdoor LED. I have not seen the night sky in years. I am exhausted. My lockdown may never end. I experience ill health around all LEDs, including blocked ears, ringing in my ears, eye pressure, head pain, headache, head pressure, nausea and migraine. Migraine is a complex neurological condition and one of the most disabling worldwide.

The straw that has broken the camel’s back is the change over from halogen to LED traffic lights and pedestrian lights, in addition to the newer driver feedback displays in our town. The pain from these is intolerable.
It has been many years since I have been able to go to a bar or restaurant. I cannot get to the GP, the vet or the shop. I am excluded from the park, the church and visiting my parents’ grave.

It is more than a sensitivity; it is a disability. I am disabled by my environment, like so many others, and excluded from society.

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