IES and Signify
The Illuminating Engineering Society was established in 1906 and claims to be the recognized authority for illumination. What they do not tell you is that the IES is also a front group for the large lighting companies such as Signify (formerly Philips), Acuity Brands and GE Lighting. We discovered the relationships between the IES, the lighting industry, the research universities and even the International Dark Sky Association this past month.
In 2016, the American Medical Association released a report on the health effects of LED lighting. The AMA’s report discussed the harmful effects of LED lights with high levels of blue wavelength light.
Rather than collaborating with the AMA and working to set industry standards that would protect us all from blue wavelength light, the IES chose to attack the veracity of the AMA’s research. IES Statement . Why would the IES do this?
The answer is that the Illuminating Engineering Society is beholden to their corporate sponsors. For example, let us look at the lighting company Signify. Signify claims on their website “A 4000K should not impact sleep unless you continuously stare at it.” Signify Statement
This statement is contrary to the AMA report that states, “In human studies, a short-term detriment in sleep quality has been observed after exposure to short wavelength light before bedtime” and “evidence supports a long-term increase in the risk for cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity from chronic sleep disruption or shiftwork and associated with exposure to brighter light sources in the evening or night.” AMA Statement
It appears that IES would rather attack the AMA for their science rather than lose their corporate sponsorship from Signify. Let us take another example of the connections between industry and the IES.
Alex Baker currently works at IES as the head of government affairs and public policy efforts. When Soft Lights contacted Mr. Baker about why IES attacks the AMA science and why IES refuses to set safety standards for blue wavelength light,
he danced around the question and claimed that Correlated Color Temperature is not a great way to specify the amount of blue wavelength light. Mr. Baker refused to specify any value that is the safe amount of blue light, even though IES is an engineering organization.
When we look at Mr. Baker’s resume, we see that he previously worked as the Global Standards Manager at Philips Lumileds, which is now Signify. In other words, IES is simply an extension of Signify and if Signify promotes 4000K LED lights, then obviously IES is not going to state otherwise. Instead, IES chooses to attack the science performed by the AMA.
In addition to the connection between IES and Signify, there is also a connection between IES and the research universities such as Virginia Tech. Researcher Ron Gibbons works at Virginia Tech. His work is quoted by the news media as if he is an independent researcher. In fact, Mr. Gibbons is a former past president of IES and is not at all independent.
Finally, the International Dark Sky Association and IES have partnered to produce a spineless list of good ideas for outdoor lighting. Absent from this list is a value specifying the maximum safe amount of blue wavelength light at night. The guidelines only state “Use Warmer Lights when Possible.” When we asked for rationale from IDA Director Ruskin Hartley as to why there is no actual value specified for safety, he refused to explain.
Now that Soft Lights is aware of these connections, we will be fighting to hold all these groups accountable for their refusal to protect us all from high color temperature LED lights.
LED Lights as Weapons
This month brought us protests and violence in cities such as Kenosha, Wisconsin and Portland, Oregon. Soft Lights noticed several things about these protests.
The authorities tell us that bright white lights make us more safe. This concept was clearly shown to be false in Kenosha. For example, here is a photo of a parking lot security light in Kenosha. As you can see, the bright white light is not keeping anybody safe.
Lights on police cars used to be for warning citizens to be careful. The police have now figured out that LED lights can be used as weapons against citizens.
What is the purpose of these strobing red and blue LED lights? Their intensity certainly exceeds any brightness level needed as warning. It seems clear that these lights are meant to intimidate, to threaten and to harm rather than to warn.
What about civil rights? Have citizens abdicated their rights to liberty and authorized the authorities to shine high intensity, eye-damaging light into their eyes? If a person has committed no crime, is it not assault for the police to use technology to attack and harm innocent people?
Soft Lights has been contacting government officials to tell them it’s time to ban LED light weapons.
August Advocacy
August 1: Queens, New York – We wrote to the Queens Community Board about the importance of darkness for human health and how bright white lights clearly do not reduce crime. The photo below shows an attack at 2am under bright white lights.
August 1: Car and Driver Magazine – News Story – We wrote to Car and Driver asking them to do a more in-depth story about why there is no color temperature limit on car headlights.
August 2: Edisto Beach, South Carolina – News Story – We wrote to the Marine Conservation Coordinator and offered to assist with their lighting policies.
August 2: Island of Malta – Birdlife Light Pollution Guidelines – We wrote to thank Birdlife Malta for their excellent new light pollution guidelines.
August 2: Canberra, Australia – We provided more light pollution studies to the Australian government.
August 6: County Down, Ireland – News Story – We wrote to the County Down council asking that they abandon the concept of converting the St. John’s Point lighthouse light to LED and that they study the effects of LED lights on human psychology.
August 7: Ashville, Alabama – News Story – We wrote to the mayor and provided information on selecting soft lighting to protect human health.
August 7: St. Helens, England – Citizen Letter – We wrote to the town council and provided information on protecting darkness and safe lighting.
August 7: Cupertino, California – We provided Public Comments regarding their outdoor lighting proposal. We recommended making darkness protection a priority and using 2200K lighting when needed.
August 9: Detroit, Michigan – Detroit has 2nd Highest Levels of Light Pollution – We wrote to the city council and stressed the importance of protecting darkness and provided educational information.
August 10: Gilroy, California – We provided Public Comments regarding their 2040 General Plan. Their plan had no mention of light pollution, so we provided our recommendations.
August 10: San Jose, California – We provided Public Comments on their Citywide Design Guidelines, recommending that the city protect the darkness resource. We also provided educational materials.
August 11: Sacramento, California – Light Pollution Study – We wrote the city to notify them of their high standing in the list of most light polluted cities.
August 11: California – We wrote to State Senator Scott Wiener asking for a ban on 5000K LED bicycle headlights.
August 13: Pennsylvania – LED Light Bar – The USDA wants to add 5000K LED light bars onto vehicles to prevent crashes with deer. We wrote to the USDA telling them that their plan would damage human eyes and mental health.
August 14: Placer County, California – We were assaulted by high energy headlights from a firetruck. We filed a formal complaint with the county.
August 15: Rocklin, California – We were assaulted by multiple high energy lights, everything from streetlights to fire truck lights. We filed a formal complaint with the city for involuntary assault.
August 16: Buckland, Massachusetts – Opinion Story – We wrote to the Buckland council and provided educational materials about protecting darkness and safe street lighting.
August 17: Hutt City, New Zealand – We wrote to city about the dangerous high color temperature LED lights shown in the photo.
August 17: United States – We wrote CBS 60 Minutes, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and others describing how light pollution is now at crisis levels and is causing health problems and that we expect oncoming lawsuits similar to lawsuits against the tobacco and asbestos industries.
August 18: Outside Magazine – We wrote to the magazine to express our deep concern over their article showing a vehicle using incredibly bright, high color temperature LED lights to destroy darkness in the wilderness.
August 19: California – We wrote to California State Senator Scott Wiener asking for legislation to ban this type of high intensity, high color temperature lighting on vehicles as shown in the photo below.
August 19: National Safety Council – We found out that the previous director of transportation is no longer at the NSC. We wrote to find out who the new director is.
August 22: Dunedin, New Zealand – News Story – We wrote the council asking them to use lower color temperature lights.
August 26: Kenosha, Wisconsin – We wrote to the city council asking them to ban LED assault lights on police vehicles.
August 28: Oregon Nature Conservancy – We provided input to the Nature Conservancy regarding protecting darkness and provided a set of guidelines for protecting their properties from light pollution.