MEDIA RELEASE Date 11th February 2016
New LED Street Lighting Bad For Health
The Victorian Chapter of the International Dark-Sky Association is calling the attention of the State Government and local councils to the health risks and other potential problems associated with the LED street lights that have been recently installed in most of Victoria’s suburban streets. The commonly-held idea that all LED lights are environmentally friendly is a fallacy for the blue-rich white light from these lights can damage the environment and possibly the health of people who have them shining into their bedrooms all night.
The mission of the International Dark-Sky Association Victoria Inc. (IDA Vic) is to preserve and protect the night time environment and our heritage of dark skies through environmentally responsible outdoor lighting. Such lighting should improve visibility, while conserving nocturnal wildlife and ecosystems and, most importantly, protect and not damage human health.
Tony Wolfe, the President of IDA Vic, says that, “Replacing old street lights with LEDs makes sense as the new lights are more efficient and so use less electricity, have low maintenance costs and long lifetimes. However, the particular street lights installed by Victoria’s councils raise significant concerns as increasing scientific evidence suggests that the ‘blue-rich’ light they deliver can be seriously detrimental to human health and to the wellbeing of nocturnal animals. As well, their design produces large amounts of glare so that they create an unpleasant ambience with reduced visibility, particularly for older people.”
IDA Vic recommends replacing these LEDs with warmer coloured, yellowish (3000K or less colour temperature) LED street lights as soon as possible. Such lights minimise the potential problems associated with blue-rich white light at night. In addition, the lights should be SMART lights, such as those currently being installed in Los Angeles, that allow remote control and monitoring. In particular, SMART street lights can be dimmed at times with low road usage by cars and pedestrians such as after midnight.
CONTACT
President Tony Wolfe Email: president@darkskyvic.au Mobile: 0418 589 533
Perry Vlahos Email: community@darkskyvic.org Mobile: 0412 365 515