A study of perceived eyestrain from fluorescent lighting performed in the UK about 15 years ago found it's not just in the minds of the people who complain about it. It turns out that the 120 Hz flicker (100 Hz in Europe), while not perceptible in our central, or "foveal" vision, is detected in our peripheral vision. It affects the ability to track lines of printed text, causing more strain on the muscles that steer our eyeballs. This is typically not a problem with compact fluorescent lamps, since their electronic ballasts switch at around 10 kHz, 100 times faster than fluorescent tubes driven directly from the power mains. Unless they are defective, they produce no perceptible flicker at all. However, fluorescent light tubes, as found in office and school environments, put out a uniform, nearly shadow-free light. It fools the eye into thinking that the lighting level is adequate. In fact, I've made light meter measurements in various places where I've worked during the 1980s and 1990s, and the lighting level has invariably been between 1/10th and 1/100th as bright as recommended in the Westinghouse Lighting Handbook, a standard reference for lighting engineers. That will not only quickly result in eyestrain, it WILL eventually cause permanent eye damage for folks that need to read a lot on the job. It's not the fluorescent light, per se, but the low light level that's the problem.
