Protecting Darkness
Our initial goal at Soft Lights was to advocate for warmer color temperatures for lighting, but as we have gained knowledge, we now realize that artificial light is a pollutant that damages the darkness resource (or starlight resource or natural night). We now know that darkness is a fundamental necessity for nearly all biological life, and without darkness, the entire natural ecosystem collapses.
As we communicate with government officials, Soft Lights is now directing our attention to both city councils and the health departments of those cities.
Until now, governments have treated outdoor lighting as an engineering issue. However, as we have now seriously damaged the darkness resource, researchers are noticing the increases in diseases associated with lack of natural night such as large increases in breast and prostate cancers, and large increases in mood and anxiety disorders, especially in teenagers.
Therefore, our goal now is to encourage health departments to take the lead in the area of light pollution and to communicate their knowledge to the city councils. We hope to see a trend away from treating artificial light as an engineering issue to treating darkness damage as a health issue.
Electromagnetic Spectrum
Let’s step through this chart of the electromagnetic spectrum.
The top row shows a wave where the peaks are close together on the left side, but then get farther apart as we look towards the right. The number of peaks that fit within a given time is the frequency of the wave. The arrow at the top points to the left with the words “Increasing Energy”. This means that the more wave peaks fit within a given period of time, the more energy the wave has. Or, the higher the frequency, the more energetic the wave.
The second arrow points to the right with the words “Increasing wavelength”. The distance between peaks grows we look from left to right on the chart and the length of the wave increases. Shorter wavelengths are on the left and longer wavelengths are on the right.
Over millions of years, humans have evolved sensors called eyes which are very finely tuned to the approximate wavelength range of 400 nanometers to 700 nanometers, with a peak sensitivity at 555nm which our brain interprets as green.
The figure below shows the Spectral Power Distribution of a 4000 Kelvin LED light. The chart shows that nearly all of the electromagnetic energy is found in the range of 380nm to 780nm.
We also notice that there is a large spike of energy around 455nm, which our brains interpret as blue. Research has shown that blue-turquoise wavelength light is very important in the control of human circadian rhythms. Blue-violet light, on the other hand, causes permanent cell death in the eye. Understanding Blue Light
Therefore, the result of using high color temperature LED lights is that human eyes are damaged and human circadian rhythms are disrupted, leading to diseases such as cancer and mood disorders.
Noise Pollution
Noise pollution such as from gas-powered leaf blowers and backup beepers cause significant harm to human health, typically in the form of stress.
One of the leading advocacy groups for reducing noise pollution is Noise Free America.
Because of the similarities between light pollution and noise pollution and how they affect human health, Soft Lights has created a companion website and Facebook group called Soft Sounds. At this point, our website has no useful content, so please feel free to view the Noise Free America website or join the Soft Sounds Facebook page to learn more about noise pollution.
November Advocacy
November 1, 2020: Galt, California – This small town has suddenly sprouted giant, exceedingly bright LED billboards, overly bright, high color floodlights from businesses, and unnecessary, high glare street lights. We wrote to the town council asking them to consider the concept of not shining bright lights into the eyes of people.
November 1, 2020: We wrote to several towns and agencies asking them the following philosophical question: “Does a person, business or government have an unrestricted right to shine light into the eyes of a person?”
November 2, 2020: – Study – This just-released study is a meta-analysis of the biological effects of artificial light at night.
November 3, 2020: Buller District, New Zealand – News Story – Blinding street lights are killing Westland petrels. We wrote to implore the district council to set strict light pollution standards to protect petrels and humans. Email: jamie.cleine@bdc.govt.nz
November 6, 2020: Research – Quote: “Removal and degradation of natural environments is expected to have negative consequences on human wellbeing.” This research article implies that artificial lighting will reduce human well being because the artificial light degrades the natural environment. Sunrise and sunset can be particularly calming, but artificial light can ruin the calm mood.
November 6, 2020: Summerville, South Carolina – News Story – Summerville is considering replacing street lights with LED. We contacted the city council to implore them to protect darkness, to consider the health risks of LED lights, and to demand that Dominion Energy provide an accurate assessment of the health dangers of artificial light before moving forward with their project. Email: abrown@summervillesc.gov
November 7, 2020: Canberra, Australia – News Story – We wrote to the Ministry of Health in Canberra, and were surprised to receive this response: “We have sought advice from ACT Health who have confirmed that there are no identified public health risks associated with streetlights in Canberra.” In response, we provided research studies and other documents to the Ministry and offered to work with them to increase their knowledge of how artificial light impacts human health. Email: stephen-smith@act.gov.au
November 7, 2020: The Vision Council and American Migraine Foundation – We reached out to The Vision Council and AMF to learn about their position on LED lights and to determine if they will join our efforts to protect human eyes. Email: rvanarnam@barnesrichardson.com and amf@talley.com
November 7, 2020: Lake Charles, Louisiana – News Story – We wrote to the tourism board and recommended that they focus on making Lake Charles a destination where tourists can go to get away from bright lights and get a good nights sleep. Email: kduncan@visitlakecharles.org
November 7, 2020: California Public Advocates Office – This office serves as a public check on the California Energy Commission. Since California’s SB 350 requires that energy efficiency efforts not adversely affect public health, wee wrote to the office and requested to work together on an investigation on the relationship between LED lights and public health. Email: PublicAdvocatesOffice@cpuc.ca.gov
November 8, 2020: Autoweek – News Story – This article is about NHTSA’s failure to approve adaptive headlights. We wrote the author and asked them to sign and promote our petition and to consider this philosophical question, “Does a person, business or government have the unrestricted right to shine light into the eyes of another person?” Email: jlingeman@autoweek.com
November 10, 2020: Davis, California – Research Article – This study shows that artificial light leads to disease. We wrote to the city of Davis Community Health Department asking to work with them to develop darkness protection regulations. Email: cmoweb@cityofdavis.org
November 11, 2020: Dallas, Texas – News Story – Dallas is upgrading to LED street lights. We wrote to the Dallas County Health Department and City Council notifying them of the dangers of artificial light and alerting them to the fact that bright white lights do not reduce crime. Email: PIO_DCHHS@dallascounty.org
November 12, 2020: California Occupational Health and Safety Administration – Letter – We filed a formal complaint with CalOSHA regarding strobing LED lights on CalTrans vehicles. Email: DOSHREG2Sacramento@dir.ca.gov
November 14, 2020: Irish Lights – We wrote a letter to the new director of Coastal Operations for Irish Lights, Julie Ascoop, congratulating her on her assignment and asking her to abandon the idea of converting the St. John’s Point lighthouse to LED. Email: info@irishlights.ie
November 16, 2020: Auckland, New Zealand – News Story – A fitness company shined a beam of blue light into the sky to promote their business. We wrote to object to the use of light pollution to advertise a business.
November 17, 2020: Walworth County, Wisconsin – News Story – This is a story about students developing their own system to measure light pollution. We wrote to express our support.
November 18, 2020: North of England – Great North Air Ambulance is using a Volvo with blinding LED headlights. We wrote to them and to Volvo asking them to stop using these dangerous headlights.
November 20, 2020: San Jose, California – We submitted comments about light pollution on the draft Environmental Impact Report for a 61.5 acre property that is currently a flea market. Email: Cassandra.VanDerZweep@sanjoseca.gov
November 21, 2020: Auckland, New Zealand – News Story – This news story discusses the harms being caused by LED lights. We wrote to the council and Ministry of Health, advising them to abandon high color temperature LED lights and to protect darkness. Email: info@health.govt.nz
November 22, 2020: New Paltz, New York – News Story – The news story discusses the plans of New Paltz to purchase LED street lights. We wrote to the town council and the New York Department of Public Health and warned them to use low color temperatures only. Email: ceheduc@health.ny.gov
November 22, 2020: Dundee England – News Story – The news story discusses the plans by Dundee to purchase LED street lights. We wrote to the town council and the Department of Public Health and warned them to use low color temperatures only. Email: health.safety@dundeecity.gov.uk
November 24, 2020: Rocklin, California – Rocklin has a new City Manager, Aly Zimmerman. We wrote to congratulate her on her new position and to request that she re-visit the concept of using high-luminance strobe lights on stop signs, yield signs and pedestrian crossing signs. Email: alyz@rocklin.ca.us
November 27, 2020: Bat Conservation Trust, England – We wrote to the trust, advising them of the dangers of light pollution and blue wavelength light.
November 29, 2020: Tasmania, Australia – News Story – Tasmania has achieved the impressive goal of 100% renewable energy. We wrote to encourage Tasmania to also protect the natural night. Email: guy.barnett@parliament.tas.gov.au
November 29, 2020: Ashland, Oregon – News Story – This tragic news story is about a shooting in Ashland in a hotel parking lot. A member of Soft Lights stayed at this motel a few months earlier and noticed that the parking lot contains high energy LED lights which cause agitation. While there is no immediate proof that the lights caused the shooting, we feel that the high energy lights were a contributing factor. We wrote to the city council and health department. Email: hreffett@ashlandhealth.com
November 30, 2020: Cupertino, California – We provided the Audubon society with expertise regarding darkness protection regulations. Audubon presented our recommendations to the Cupertino City Council who has directed staff to investigate setting 2700K as the maximum color temperature.
Project Updates
Friends of Merrymeeting Bay vs. Central Maine Power – This lawsuit is proceeding. Details in the CMP Chops Tower Lawsuit section here.
Soft Lights vs. Longview Mini Storage – Soft Lights has now filed a Small Claims case against Longview for creating an illegal nuisance. The case is scheduled for February, 2021.
California Light Pollution Regulations – Soft Lights is now working with the California Statewide Utility Codes and Standards Team that is charged with proposing energy efficiency standards for the California Title 24, Part 6 Energy Code. This Codes and Standards Enhancement (CASE) initiative is supposed to include input from all stakeholders, but so far this team is failing to listen to health experts about the dangers of artificial light. Email: kacv@pge.com
We have also made contact with the California Public Utilities Commission and are attempting to have our voice heard regarding the dangers of light pollution.