And the Japanese have had them even longer...
Since I find myself on one of these every night, one side effect seems to be that I don't wake up with a hangover (I might get slightly more apnoea). Since I am getting some extra pressure, I must be getting more oxygen as well. So they may have a point.
In the UK there is case law that specifically makes this illegal. The case in question involved a farmer on whose land a very powerful broadcast radio station was located. He lit his cow sheds with fluorescents powered by picking up IIRC Radio 4 using bits of wire soldered to the contacts of the fluorescent tubes. He was fined quite a large amount of money for "stealing electricity".
An authority is a person who can tell you more about something than you really care to know.