Are fluorescent lights unhealthy

In general, fluorescent lights are safe, but there are some potential dangers. The main potential health risk is Mercury exposure. This can only happen when a fluorescent bulb is broken and when it happens risks can be minimized through proper clean up procedure. It should be noted that the amount of mercury in bulbs is very small, and is unlikely to cause noticeable symptoms. Most health effects attributed to mercury are due to chronic, or long term exposure.

Other issues include trouble falling asleep at night (caused by having lights that are too blue in color, common with CF though this can happen with any "daylight" bulb), and eye strain and/or headache (caused by some older low frequency magnetic ballasts. modern electronic ballasts don't generally cause this problem).