We propose a general mechanism for renormalization of the tunneling exponents in edge states of the fractional quantum Hall effect. Mutual effects of the coupling with out-of-equilibrium 1/f noise and dissipation are considered both for the Laughlin sequence and for composite co- and counter-propagating edge states with Abelian or non-Abelian statistics. For states with counter-propagating modes we demonstrate the robustness of the proposed mechanism in the so called disorder-dominated phase. Prototypes of these states, such as u=2/3 and u=5/2, are discussed in detail and the rich phenomenology induced by the presence of a noisy environment is presented. The proposed mechanism justifies the strong renormalizations reported in many experimental observations carried out at low temperatures. We show how environmental effects could affect the relevance of the tunneling excitations, leading to important implications in particular for the u=5/2 case.
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