Vox Clamatis in Deserto
Flashlight Enthusiast
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2006
- Messages
- 1,126
Just saw this WaPo hit piece on LED's. Remember how we just had to get rid of incandescents to save the planet? Will this become a new rallying cry for 'activists'? Will there be a move to install lights with lower Kelvin temperatures that are similar in output to the incandescents that the newer technologies replaced? Will there be a coming raft of EPA, OSHA, NHTSA and other regulations in this area?
Some excerpts from the Washington Post article:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...779568-7c3d-11e6-bd86-b7bbd53d2b5d_story.html
Here's a link to the AMA report:
https://download.ama-assn.org/resources/doc/csaph/a16-csaph2.pdf
Beware that 'unseen' blue light.
Some excerpts from the Washington Post article:
Some cities are taking another look at LED lighting after AMA warning
By Michael Ollove September 25, 2016
If people are sleepless in Seattle, it may not be only because they have broken hearts.
The American Medical Association issued a warning in June that high-intensity LED streetlights — such as those in Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, Houston and elsewhere — emit unseen blue light that can disturb sleep rhythms and possibly increase the risk of serious health conditions, including cancer and cardiovascular disease. The AMA also cautioned that those light-emitting-diode lights can impair nighttime driving vision.
Similar concerns have been raised over the past few years, but the AMA report adds credence to the issue and is likely to prompt cities and states to reevaluate the intensity of LED lights they install.
Scott Thomsen, a spokesman for Seattle City Lights, which is responsible for the city's exterior illumination, dismissed the health concerns about bright-white LED lights, noting that they emit less of the problematic blue wavelengths than most computers and televisions.
Mark Hartman, Phoenix's chief sustainability officer, said the city might go with a mix of the intense lights for major intersections and ballpark areas that need very bright light and a softer light for residential areas. He said the city would consider the health arguments, although he, too, mentioned the glow from computers and televisions. "Nobody says don't watch television or use your computer after 9 p.m. because of blue lights," he said.
The Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency "put a lot of push into them," said Michael Siminovitch, director of the California Lighting Technology Center at the University of California at Davis. "I call it a rush."
Siminovitch said the light from early-generation LEDs "really negatively impacts people's physiological well-being."
"As a species, we weren't designed to see light at night," Siminovitch said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...779568-7c3d-11e6-bd86-b7bbd53d2b5d_story.html
Here's a link to the AMA report:
https://download.ama-assn.org/resources/doc/csaph/a16-csaph2.pdf
Beware that 'unseen' blue light.