LED lights are ruining our eyesight and wreaking havoc on our endocrine systems, peer-reviewed studies show… Leading photobiologist recommends switching back to sunlight, candles and incandescent bulbs
One of the world’s top photobiologists has been trying to warn us about the dangers of the government-mandated phasing out of incandescent lighting for years.
While LEDs (light-emitting diodes) are up to 95 percent more energy efficient than incandescent bulbs, we are paying for that savings with our health, he says.
A physician and professor at Wismar University in Germany, Alexander Wunsch is an international consultant to governments, medical facilities and the lighting industry.
His message, though often ignored, is clear: blue light, isolated from all the other colors on the light spectrum, is damaging our retinas and disrupting our endocrine systems, resulting in all sorts of physical and mental illness.
It’s not a message the LED industry, governments looking to cut carbon emissions, or consumers saving money on electricity want to hear. But, as this Harvard Medical School report says, it is “backed up by study after study.”
Natural light vs. LED light
Natural light gives off all the colors (wavelengths) of the rainbow in a somewhat continuous manner, Wunsch explains in an interview.
Typical “white” LED lights consist of a blue light-emitting diode and phosphor (fluorescent) coating.
This fluorescent coating transforms part of the blue light into longer wavelengths, creating a yellowish “looking” light, but most of the wavelengths emitted are still invisible blue light.
Blue light is high-energy, short-wave length “aggressive” light, responsible for keeping us awake and alert.
While present in sunlight, and a necessary ingredient for life, blue light needs to be balanced by all other colors of light, particularly its opposite color of light – red.
As you can see below, red light is absent in traditional fluorescent and LED lights:
Wunsch says most of us are severely deficient in near-infrared light, which has a wavelength of between 700 and 2500 nanometers.
The heat generated by incandescent light bulbs is infrared radiation. While this heat requires more electricity, the red light it generates is actually beneficial to your health, and therefore worth the extra cost, in Wunsch’s opinion.
Near-infrared light – like that generated by a candle or fire – primes the cells in your retina for rest, repair and regeneration, which is why Wunsch uses it as a therapy on his patients.
Near-infrared is also a crucial energy source for humans. According to Wunsch, only about one-third of our bodies’ thermodynamic energy comes from food. A much larger portion comes from “photonic energy” from the sun.
The more near-infrared radiation we get, the less food is required for maintaining thermal homeostasis (body temperature), he says.
Health problems associated with excess blue light
LED lighting is one of the largest sources of non-native electromagnetic radiation we are exposed to on a daily basis.
In addition to lighting our houses, office buildings, schools, stores and streets, LEDs have become the dominant technology for back-lighted tablet displays, such as ipads, iphones and e-readers, and LCD TVs.
Virtually all reading these days involves staring directly at LEDs.
Many optometrists have spoken out about the damage this is doing to our eyes, one estimating 100,000 Americans will become legally blind due to blue-light damage over the next decade.
A recent study published in the peer-reviewed journal Molecular Vision says prolonged exposure to blue light with a wavelength between 400–470 nanometers can “induce severe damage to the retina.”
Even brief periods of exposure to blue light in this range can damage the retinal pigment epithelium. Damaged RPE eventually leads to photoreceptor cell death,” the study says. If enough photoreceptor cells die, total blindness can occur.
In addition to damaging our eyesight, blue light after sunset disrupts our endocrine system.
“Study after study has linked working the night shift and exposure to light at night to several types of cancer (including breast and prostate), diabetes, heart disease, and obesity, says an article published by Harvard Medical School.
These diseases may be related to the fact that light suppresses melatonin, a hormone that influences circadian rhythms, the article says:
“While light of any kind can suppress the secretion of melatonin, blue light does so more powerfully. Harvard researchers and their colleagues conducted an experiment comparing the effects of 6.5 hours of exposure to blue light to exposure to green light of comparable brightness. The blue light suppressed melatonin for about twice as long as the green light and shifted circadian rhythms by twice as much (3 hours vs. 1.5 hours).”
In addition to suppressing melatonin, Dr. Wunsch says excessive exposure to blue light creates “oxidative stress” that damages lipids, proteins and DNA and is linked to a myriad of pathologies.
What to Do
While cool LED bulbs emit more blue light than warm LED bulbs, the label “warm” can be deceptive. They give out a warmer “looking” light because the blue light is masked with a yellow or orange filter, but they do not emit a red wavelength.
When buying bulbs, look at their CRI or color rendering index, Wunsch says.
Sunlight, which is the gold standard, has a CRI of 100. So do incandescent bulbs and candles. If you must buy LED bulbs, look for a CRI of 97, which is the closest they come to natural light.
LEDs are the most dangerous at night, Wunsch says, as there is no counterbalancing red light. The biological risks of artificial light are somewhat mitigated if you have plenty of sunlight streaming through windows, but if that’s the case, why have lights on at all?
Wunsch says being in darkness after sunset is optimal. Candle light is enough for orientation, he says, but if we must do activities that require more light, he highly recommends getting our hands on incandescent bulbs.
While you won’t find them at most department stores, you can still buy “vintage” incandescent bulbs on Amazon. Just make sure they are crystal clear, not coated, so as not to block the beneficial red light:
For a more energy-efficient incandescent light, you can buy low-voltage halogen bulbs
Just make sure you operate halogen on DC rather than AC to prevent electrosmog, Munsch says.
And, if you must be exposed to blue light after dark, definitely wear blue-light blocking glasses:
by
Comments
118 responses to “The Dark Side of LED Lighting”
Home Depot has an entire section of vintage bulbs that are more orange in color. I just bought one for my deck that looks beautiful.
You have to be careful though – many of those vintage looking bulbs have led elements. You want the ones that have the carbon fiber elements. The true Edison design. They last longer also.
The vintage bulbs at Home Depot are in fact LED.
Great article and thank you. As someone woth vision issues I have been amazed how this has not been shouted from rooftops. You did however leave a VERY IMPORTANT fact out with reguard to those blocker glasses. The lenses need a specific type to properly filter the blue light our eyes are being impacted by. Inexpensive blueblockers do not work.
Now to get my husband on board with this. Thx again.
Yeah, that husband thing…..
Because it’s bogus.
You must not understand the science behind this, because it is factual.
Not sure why you say that. According to Consumer Reports, who lab tested 3 brands, the cheap $8 Uvex Skyper safety eyewear (orange tinted) blocked nearly all blue light. The Gunnar Intercept gaming glasses (medium yellow), $53, cut blue light by about half, and the Spektrum Pro Blue Light Blocking Glasses (light yellow), $40, cut it by only about a third. So much for the “more money, better product” theory.
My son swears by the Gunnar Intercept gaming glasses. He spends a lot of time doing video and audio work in front of a screen.
Yes,Uvex brand make excellent quality safety glasses. Safety being the operative word, I would fully expect them to be top notch! Thanks for sharing ☺
This study seems to be based solely on “white” LED illumination. I saw nothing regarding “daylight” or warm white LED light.
Looks to me that everything is in there.. it mentions how “daylight” bulbs are just tinted blue lights, no?
look to the Harvard study link in the story – it shows spectrograms for the different types of bulbs and the warm LED’s emit minimal Blue light – about the same as incandescent. No way am i going back to incandescent – too much carbon pollution!
“While cool LED bulbs emit more blue light than warm LED bulbs, the label “warm” can be deceptive. They give out a warmer “looking” light because the blue light is masked with a yellow or orange filter, but they do not emit a red wavelength.”
Good point. Individual LED colors have remarkably narrow bandwidths. When I did photo darkroom color work the newly innovative amber LED offered a 589nm wavelength that could be used to see color paper and film without fogging, in what otherwise required total darkness.
In the studio, my first (digital)foray into LED subject lighting was a portrait tried using warm white LEDs only to fail miserably! Even Photoshop couldn’t correct the yellow/orange cast, that didn’t contain enough cyan/blue/green light to correct,similar to mercury-vapor light. Cool white LEDs (5500-6000 Kelvin)seem to work reasonably well.
This is certainly not true if you look at the spectrum diagram on the article you can see that white LEDs cool white or warm white emits red wavelength. The difference is in the intensity of the blue pick. More then that higher CRI doesn’t garenty you get high red pick this article is full of incorrect information
Where do I find CRI on bulb? I use “daylight” bulbs and no one has commented on these yet. I have read entire article. The color it gives out is white light.
white light is just a combination of colours. What looks white to the human eye may be far from “white” as per sunlight.
I use LED strips, running of battery power. Cool white really does look blue. White is pretty good, and warm-white is quite orange. I don’t believe there is any filter or secondary phosphor. There are also LEDs that are actually a cluster of individual “chips”, with colour compensation built in.
Your heater emits the red wave length and the warm white emits less blue light than an incandescent bulb. I remember hearing the same scare mongering when microwaves first became popular.
Its almost right at the end of the article
What to Do
While cool LED bulbs emit more blue light than warm LED bulbs, the label “warm” can be deceptive. They give out a warmer “looking” light because the blue light is masked with a yellow or orange filter, but they do not emit a red wavelength.
When buying bulbs, look at their CRI or color rendering index, Munsch says.
Sunlight, which is the gold standard, has a CRI of 100. So do incandescent bulbs and candles. If you must buy LED bulbs, look for a CRI of 97, which is the closest they come to natural light.
90CRI LED lamps are hard enough to come by. 97CRI I’ve never seen.
It’s amazing how some people will state quite clearly that they have read something when they actually have not… or maybe you did read it but didn’t comprehend what you’ve read. Either way, doesn’t say much for you eh?
If a person has a “comprehension” problem,that doesn’t mean they as any less of a person than you.please be more tolerant of others.just like others have been tolerant of your ignorance and rudeness.just stick to the article,which has informative information.
This is copied from the article: While cool LED bulbs emit more blue light than warm LED bulbs, the label “warm” can be deceptive. They give out a warmer “looking” light because the blue light is masked with a yellow or orange filter, but they do not emit a red wavelength.
Then the article is wrong. Warm white leds are not masked with a filter. Most white leds work by having a fluorescent coating (yes really) which absorbs the energy (exciter) from the blue led inside and re-emitting Red and Green (and lots inbetween). The warm white emit more red and less green blue violet than the cool white (or the “daylight” leds). However all these leds have a sharp peak of blue from the exciter, so it’s not clear that the warm white versions are that much “safer” at night.
Try reading the entire article and not just skimming through it.
I did and it’s better than the cooler light led but it must not be coated the bulb and it must be 97 cri if you have to have the white led and best to have it on a dinner switch to make it nice and low like a candle so you can produce melatonin better.
They do talk about the warm white LEDS, please re read the artical.
Warm white LED is shown as one of the 6 types of lightbulbs in the graphs.
Read it again
“Daylight” LED lamps are the bluest of them. A typical incandescent is 2700K and a daylight lamp is defined as 5000K, the higher the number the more blue. LEDs tend to have very narrow wavelength spikes, as shown in the graphs above
What about mercury in CFL and traditional fluorescent bulbs? What about computer and phone screens? What kind of light do they emit? Surely, most people in developed countries are using computers and phones often enough to address this issue. I am not convinced.
I believe it was addressed,
“In addition to lighting our houses, office buildings, schools, stores and streets, LEDs have become the dominant technology for back-lighted tablet displays, such as iPads and e-readers, and large LCD television sets. Virtually all reading these days involves staring directly at an LED light source, rather than at newspapers, magazines and books, where light is reflected off the paper, rather than beamed directly into our eyes.”
Smartphones certainly emit a very harsh blue light. I believe many people in the electronic industry are fully aware of the damage blue light causes. The reason I say this is because my Samsung s8 has a blue light filter.
My concerns about this study is not only in regards to the light we are exposed to in our homes, schools and offices but also the light that our children are looking at on a constant basis. These kids are looking at their phones constantly! Sadly I think they will be the ones who have the severe vision issues as they get older.
There are apps you can use to control the kind of light your smartphone emits.
Are there any other scientists corroborating Munsch’s work?
That’s my question as well.
As far as I can see he doesn’t do such work, he just reproduces other people’s findings. A pubmed search shows ONE study on reducing wrinkles for cosmetic purposes and his being 8th signatory on an article about UV and vitamin D. And that’s the lot.
Were there any citations with the article?
I use warm LED lights and have found a few full spectrum LED bulbs and those are what I use.
This is copied from the article:
While cool LED bulbs emit more blue light than warm LED bulbs, the label “warm” can be deceptive. They give out a warmer “looking” light because the blue light is masked with a yellow or orange filter, but they do not emit a red wavelength.
full spectrum LED … means “more than just blue”?
The whole article, full of different generalizations, concerns the damage that in our body produces blue light. I do not want to discuss this part, even though the damage is presented in a highly exaggerated way and in addition to mix the damage caused by the blue light to the damage caused by ultraviolet radiation. But this is not the subject of my comment.
In the comment I want to ask what does it have to do with LEDs that emit light mainly in the green and yellow parts of the electromagnetic spectrum – this is clearly shown in the diagram at the beginning of this article (warm white LED light). And the light from the green and yellow parts of the electromagnetic spectrum is the healthiest and safest for our eyes – tired eyes rest and regenerate faster when we look at green plants or green walls or images with green color.
Green, not red!
Also suggesting that incandescent bulbs are “healthier” because they emit infrared radiation is a disinformation. The amount of infrared radiation emitted by a normal incandescent bulb is negligible with respect to one bulb – try to warm even a small room turning on all possible lamps with ordinary incandescent bulbs! I guarantee that as you were cold you still will!
On the other hand, in the whole country, the loss of energy in the heat of incandescent light bulbs is counts already in millions of dollars. On the whole of the Earth, these losses must be covered by an increase of more than 40% in electric energy production. Special electric heating lamps are made in a completely different technology – so that most of the energy is emitted as infrared (heat) radiation, not as a light.
Briefly summarizes – the article presents tangle of various facts, so as to prove premise founded that LED is harmful and old bulbs do not. What’s a pity! The truth is that everything has its price – LED bulbs too. But their main harm to the environment and man lies elsewhere, than the article suggests.
“try to warm even a small room turning on all possible lamps with ordinary incandescent bulbs! I guarantee that as you were cold you still will!”
Funny, I have a reading corner with an incandescent bulb and I notice and appreciate the warmth.
Congratulations ula your response is so knowledgeable and well reasoned that no-one has dared to come back requoting the article to you!
Ula-Green (or any other color for that matter) colors found in plants, walls etc. do not emit light at all, rather, they absorb and reflect color. Therefore, that argument is null.
The name is WUNSCH not Munsch
Whoever thinks candlelight is enough after dark has never tried to wash dishes in winter after daylight savings. Js
Manetta, they simply said a candle is enough light to navigate a dark room. I agree. They didn’t imply is was enough light to work in.
You are aware blind people wash their own dishes, tho-right?
just sayin
Well for me this article is pretty much true because I am one of the victims of LED light or backlit. I am a project manager and used to with Mobile screens.
Due to excessive use of mobile screens something happens my visual capability as I am now unable to see clearly in Natural light and I sometimes even need an LED reflection to read some text.
The Harvard article suggest not using blue lights while trying to sleep. The rest of this is pretty much “an opinion” with no real data to back it up.
The Harvard article acknowledges there is something much more agressive about blue light than full spectrum light, that it throws off your circadian rhythm by twice as much as full spectrum light at night.
There is another study published in a scholarly journal in this article that says blue light is exhausting for your eyes and can eventually lead to blindness given too much exposure. Way to ignore that.
You could use LEd lighting and have just one incandescent lamp on to provide the missing red end wavelength, as usual, there are ways around this, we use candles to provide that red wavelength.
It’s about balance. The sun provides all colors of the rainbow in balanced amounts, so does incandescent.
This is incredibly inaccurate, the author has straight made up facts. I mean Google tunable white, Google “how do LEDs achieve color temperature”. I don’t know what the author has against LED lighting ornif she simply has bad information.
Author probably paid by incandescent lobby. The sugar industry did this type of thing too to tell you the benefits of sugar. Follow the money.
Oh yeah… I’m totally being paid by the essentially outlawed incandescent light industry! haha!
What are you on about, “incandescent lobby”? Everyone and their mother can now source LED lights from China or elsewhere, all the traditional “incandescent” vendors like OSRAM and Philips are just as able to supply LED lightning, they’re not really interested in selling you incandescent bulbs anymore.
Yes, sugar industry did something like what you purport to show LED manufacturers do, but the latter isn’t a fact.
Big manufacturers are still hoping to go back to incandescent and fluoros due to their high profit margin. LEDs changed the game for them and their future is much less stable now. Profits are going down and new players are entering the market.
I’m not sure is the author is paid, but if not, she has missed a big chance to make some cash from them 😉
A more simple answer is power companies profits are shrinking. I remember one city near where I lived handed out cfl bulbs in a package with outher energy saving stuff(pipe foam, low flow tap attachment etc) along with documentation showing the best ways of cutting their bills. It worked, really well. It worked to the point that the energy company petitioned the government to allow them to jack the prices because they weren’t making enough money.
So let me get this straight. We the consumers, finally did something about our waste and inefficiently while we drove by our wealthier neighbours with 20 outdoor house lights , every thing lit in the house, 20 million xmas and Halloween decorations because energy prices aren’t a major expense compared to their salary…yet we are now going to have to pay more for being good at not consuming energy leaving the power company with excess electricity and no where for it to go?
Yes, pretty much.
This is suspect IMO as has been mentioned the majority of the light is green spectrum. W have been told that looking at TV screens is bad for you since our youth, so it stands to reason having so much extra artificial light in our lives would cause us some problems in relation to our health.
Personally I don’t like the blue lights and only use it for when I have fine work that required good lighting. But this over reaction sounds like a pile of BS. I will wait till there are a number of papers that identify a more major problem with a large enough data base(more than 1000 people for more than a few years). to return to incandescent bulbs.
Do like me and just have 1 light on that uses a lampshade and warm LED light. Less power, less light pollution, less chance(if it exists) to damage you. If I have 5 incandescent bulbs vs one or two warm LEDs how is that any better.
As an engineer in the LED lighting field (Forrest McCanless; look me up; twelve lighting patents at the moment), this is hokum. I think the point-by-point rebuttal would be boring, so I’ll leave it to the interested reader to learn more – always a good idea.
I, for one, would greatly appreciate it if you would direct us to someplace where we could get the info from a more reputable source. It sounds like you might know what you’re talking about. If we’re reading these comments, we obviously would appreciate links … etc.
Did you have studies conducted that prove that blue spectrum light has no health disadvantages compared to full spectrum lighting?
What do you think about the Color Rendering Index method of evaluating LED lights? I just acquired some of filament LED bulbs and they put out what appears to be a warm color, but I don’t know what their EM spectrum or CRI looks like.
CRI is important for a wide variety of applications from graphic design to fish tanks to plants to people and is not limited to LED lightning.
I must agree with Forrest that this article appears to take a study and a fact and then distort it and run wild with supposition. I’m not impressed. It is unfortunate to have disinformation out there like this article.
There are settings on your laptop to make it more “red” on the screen. Not sure what to do about cell phones as they dont have those settings.
Actually, some cell phones do have a redder setting. My LG V20 is one…
Kristy, if you use Android phones you can download the “Sunset” application from the Google Play app store and select the orange filter. I use it on my phone. If you use an iPhone, I think there is a setting you can adjust to dim the brightness of your screen during a time frame that you specify. There are probably filter apps in the Apple app store, too.
Not sure about other phones but the Samsung Galaxy 8+ had a blue light filter you can turn on.
The Galaxy S7 has a filter and blue light filter aswell.
My phone has a blue light filter, as do downloadable apps.
iPhones, at least the 7 Plus, have a “Night Shift” setting that lets you change the “warmth” of the display color.
There are apps for that – – Twilight in the Google Play store for instance, and newer iPhones have a setting built in.
All iPhones from the 5S and up have a “night shift” setting.
Available on both the MacOS and iOS devices. Windows and Android too. Apple is now building it in. BUT, note that this is a time of day issue, not the hyperbole of this article.
This article presents numerous affiliate links to product which it claims will prevent blindness and various cancers. The way it is written, the context and the fact that it attempts to make money from its readers should all cause you to switch on your “Fake News” detection system, the one in your own mind that is.
While I question the validity of this article, most likely the ads are automated to pick up on keywords within the article and display associated advertisements. I doubt the article was ginned up solely to sell panaceas for what the article is describing.
Disappointing to see fake news supported by a social media group I liked. The article is full of misinformation and one sided positions. Go back to candlelight? You really think that the massive amounts of economic activity done before and after sunset should be sacrificed? 100,000 people over 10 years is 10,000, or about 1 out of 40,000. Seeing how you are much more likely to already be dead from heart disease or diabetes, probably not worth it.
But let’s talk about the massive energy waste that happens when we go backwards in technology. Let’s talk about the one scientist quoted, much like the one scientist who says global warming is not happening, or the one “doctor” who said vaccines cause autism. Let’s talk about misleading facts like humans needing near-infered light (aka heat) to maintain body temperature. Duh! Let’s talk about who is sponsoring the content to put out fake news. So disappointing.
Yes we should try to move backwards. I suggest whale oil lamp. And coal to heat our homes…that would be better.
I think this article is dishonest and I found several points to be misleading (Sorry, Sarah).
The blue light which is harming retinas and warned about by several opticians etc. in this article is mostly the result of device screens not LED light bulbs, all of the articles they quoted were referring to device screens, not overhead bulbs.
It is true there is less red light from the LED bulbs, but it is not completely absent, and they are increasing the amount of red light more and more as the LED technology advances so it becomes more natural.
Also, what they measured in the graph only said “warm white LED” but that really shows dishonesty as well, it should at least have a Kelvin rating for the color of light because you can get many “warm white” bulbs that are barely warm and still heavy on the blue. By definition, “Warm” light from bulbs is the result of more red light, sunlight is generally considered 4800k, most light bulbs I buy are around 3000k. There could be a tit for tat about this, LED light is not sunlight, but there is plenty of red present.
I agree that incandescent light is more pleasing than LED, but for the recommendations to work as stated the bulbs would need to be uncovered and directly exposed, no fixture or shade. We don’t really get any direct light from out bulbs, they are almost always filtered one way or another.
The tone of the article is also fear based and lacking real scientific data, random partial quotes from people without any reference to actual research papers or deep factual data (also many of those quotes taken out of context), a graph with basic generalities, and one Harvard article about device screens which is misapplied.
I do agree, as everyone does that getting sunlight is important, and that laying in bed using a device is bad for your sleep and eyesight. These things need to be limited and balanced.
thay can put filters on the bulbs that reduce and nearly eliminate the blue light. This isnt a real issue. The smog from pollution is far more harmful than the blue light. most people who have contacts on today are already wearing blue light filters. If you are lacking on red light it just means you need to get outside more, besides LEDs do emmit a very small amount of red light. They have had blue light filters for screens for a long time. Also screens are far more the issue here then bulbs. The energy saving from led is enough to pay for a filter. While running a lodge with 13 bedrooms I switched out all the bulbs to led and saved over $200 a month. Thats like taking a car off the road every month in pollution. We can all breath easier thanks to led lights. This argument should have started with informing people properly about light filters, instead of placing that at the bottom and being very dead set against led. fake lighting in general isnt all that good for us no matter where it comes from, it’s just a part of modern living. TV screens, computer screen, ipads and iphones are all led light. No one is arguing to run them on incandescent. Just buy a filter, keep you lights off when not needed, and go outside more.
I buy full spectrum light bulbs for my birds and I also have one for sewing. It is called an Ott light. Full spectrum for being able to color match correctly. What about these lights?
Incandescent or halogen. Stay away from LED and fluorescent.
Please tell me where I can get this light.
This reads as hogwash to me. First there’s no such thing as “invisible blue light”. We wouldn’t be able to call it blue if it were invisible. There’s ultraviolet light, which becomes invisible once you get 390 nm or so. If you look at the graphs, which seem believable (I have no idea), sunlight has by far the highest UV content, followed by incandescent/halogen, with the lowest UV showing for both LED graphs.
You can also see that LED light has higher infrared content than flourescents. We really don’t want that much IR. IR is basically heat and the absence of IR is what keeps heat down with LED lighting vs tungsten (incandescent or halogen). Modern building glass is all made with both UV and IR inhibitors for these reasons.
LED light is produced in the same way as flourescent light – a UV LED energizes a phosphor coating on the lens of the LED which re-emits visible light. This gives tremendous control over the spectral content of the light being emitted. According to the graphs, LED’s are best in regards to UV. The spectra of LEDs are very well controlled.
Bottom line, if you want to scare people about LED’s, find some different graphs to support your hype.
remember that fluorescent has mercury in if the bulb breaks the room should be evacuated and clean .
LEDs may have problems too like the article points out.
Incandescent very low lumens per watt and short life. Of course we could use an illumination engineer to evaluate different technologies Fluorescent also has stroboscopy efect which can be compensated by proper design.
today engineers need more knowledge.
weak managers in regards to physics. nuclear chemistry and electrical are taking over the profession. we reap what we sow.
.
I remember back when leds came out as the ‘new energy’ bulb to have and everyone said they were the best thing. So eco friendly on many levels, saves money, ‘better’ lighting…..I remember someone saying incandescent would be ‘banned’ or illegal.
Candles are understated.
does this mean i cant play minecraft
no you can
This article is highly biased against LED technology…. LEDs can have hundreds of different color DIODES first off… So the claim that all LEDs emit strong blue light is absolutely erroneous.
Secondly, the problem isnt with how the light is emitted, it’s WHEN we are exposing ourselves to that light. Why dont we have that same problem with the light the sun emits? Doesnt the sun emit all spectrums of light all the time? Then the same problems would persist throughout all forms of full spectrum lighting regardless of how it is emitted.
I think the article is highly biased because the only problem it points out is that exposure to blue light at night can cause sleeping issues. Well yea, no shit eh? The sun doesnt shine at night. So the TYPE of light is irrelevant. Its the timing and color of the light, not HOW the light is emitted…
You would have the same damned problem if you took an incandescent bulb and painted it blue……..
Jerica is real!!!!
Way too simplistic, yet thank you for this important topic!
1. Kelvin tells you very little, because several different spectra can have very similar K temp and be misleading (try looking at LED lights with horrible blue spikes in the spectra and still solds as warm 2800K bulbs)
2. CRI 97 is just not good for critical work. If you want truly color accurate CRI, the minimum is CRI 99 (ask any archivist or a museum lighting specialist). No LEDs can do CRI 99
3. In the end, closeness of spectral power distribution to black body radiation (and atmospheric filtered versions of that, depending on the time of the day) matter. This is what our genetics and biology are tuned into.
= Try to get as spikeless power spectra as possible, closes to black body you can get (rules out LEDs, CFCs and many others completely). If you need good color rendition CRI99 is your cut-off point. If you want proper circadian evening regulation, ensure both low K, low luminosity AND lack of spikes in the spectra
There is a blue light filter software you can install for free on android.
I’m thinking of buying a candle.
Full Spectrum lighting is available as Grow Lights for plants. Gardening Centers will have them.
Too late in Canada which has banned the manufacture of incandescent bulbs and now sells only LED, CFL and other kinds of bulbs.
But they make LED bulbs that are a warm hue and not blue. I have them in my house
I have noticed you don’t monetize your website, don’t waste your traffic, you can earn extra
bucks every month because you’ve got hi quality content.
If you want to know how to make extra $$$, search for: Mertiso’s tips best
adsense alternative
This is a very misleading article. First, they say that we are deficient in the appear infrared spectrum of light at 700-2500nm. This is not near infrared, it is infrared, we cannot see those wavelengths, they are heat. Sure incandescent radiate those wavelengths, but we cannot see them and they do not have an effect on our visual systems. We DO NOT have photoreceptors that can absorb those wavelengths and turn them into neural impulses. This is referring to melatonin production. It is almost criminal that they are using figures which even show emission of wavelengths that are over 700nm in order to convince the reader of the ills of LEDs. Second, they are talking about how red lighting is good, and blue light is bad, and therefore natural light and incandescents are the best. If you carefully analyze the figures of the light spectrum emitted, incandescents and halogens emit more blue light than warm white LEDs. Third, emitting red light does not somehow make up for the emission of blue light. The eye still absorbs all the blue light that is emitted, but you do not consciously notice it. Fourth, they are saying that the blue light emitted by a light source needs to be “balanced” (whatever that means) by red light. If that is true, then by looking at the figures presented, and ignoring the crock which are wavelengths over 700nm, it is clear that the best option is warms LEDs, as they emit almost no blue light, but still emit red light, and the ratio of red light emitted to blue light emitted is overwhelmingly in favour of the red light. However it is not pleasant having LEDs that are in the blue spectrum. Buy ones that have a light colour of either 2700 or 3000 Kelvin, do not buy ones that are 4000 Kelvin and above. This way you will be environmentally conscious, save, money, and avoid blue light.
Thanks Sara, for an eye opening article.
The rule of thumb is to use free sun light wherever possible. In this TED presentation, lighting architect Rogier van der Heide offers a beautiful new way to look at the world — by paying attention to light (and to darkness)
https://www.ted.com/talks/rogier_van_der_heide_why_light_needs_darkness#t-992468
Excellent read, I just passed this onto a friend who was doing some research on that. And he just bought me lunch as I found it for him smile Thus let me rephrase that: Thanks for lunch!
If the LED lamps ill effects to human health and well-being are really true…so, there is moral and ethical concern now to its continuous use by the general public…because the present design of LED lamps are not the optimum one for human health its engineering design should be improve…
I am not convinced by some of the things said here…not convinced that LEDs are always bad. But I am real clear that i feel like crap under fluorescent lights, and that blue or white LEDs are almost painful to have on at night. I have an LED light in my room during the day that feels just fine to me, and by night I cover it with amber or green fabric…dims and softens and changes the whole room. And that feels great too.
Its important to consider all such articles as this w care…reading someone else’s conclusions is not the same as doing your own research, and many science “fanatics” exist. They go too far, becoming dogmatic, and that blinds them.
As a photographer for 30 years I’ve spent a lifetime studying light – both scientifically and aesthetically . Too much of this article is nonsense. Half facts and weakly supported insinuations lead on the reader with the intent of building a fear of LEDs.
Yeah, sitting in nothing but blue light all day is generally unhealthy and may well drive you bonkers. You need 10-30 minutes of sunlight a day for proper vitamin D production. Open your shades and let in some sunlight. Problem solved. This is a general wellness issue, not a world changing scientific discovery.
“The more near-infrared radiation we get, the less food is required for maintaining thermal homeostasis (body temperature), he says.”
So just to be clear… The more warmth we absorb the easier it is to stay warm? Groundbreaking.
RGB LED strip lighting is also safe to use. RGB (RED GREEN BLUE) covers almost the full spectrum. As for lack of infrared, if your that concerned, you can buy off eBay Infrared flood lighting. The purpose of them is to be used with CCTV outdoor surveillance cameras. They increase the distance that a night vision camera can see. They are reasonably small and cost between $5 & $30. I have several myself for my security
I’m stay in the tropics.
I not so worry about the LED bulb.
Why? During the daytime use more daylight in office and home. Furthermore, by walking at outside to the car, to office, to the backyard, jogging, etc will exposed to natural infrared / sun.
Only part of the night time at home exposed to white LED lamp.
So, no need to worry.
I must say, I do like the choice of colour used to highlight certain phrases in this article, especially considering most people reading it will be looking at LEDs…
So led lights that have a “warm” yellow or orange filter are no good because they don’t emit a red wavelength, but orange tinted glasses, also just a “filter” make everything okay. So which is it? If orange glasses are sufficient to protect your eyes, then orange filters on the bulbs themselves are also sufficient. That contradiction more than anything (except believing anything the snake oil merchant Mercola has to say) points this article out as nothing more than scare mongering.
Does it help if the bulbs are shaded or behind frosted domes?
Yet you profit from Ads selling LED Light Bulbs on your post page.
It’s entirely possible that our sun, despite being “natural”, may not be the perfect ideal for human light needs.
I use The Photon Genius. Look it up! Amazing healings from light. AWAKE
Nonsense! A quick look at the spectrum graphs in the article will show you that daylight is the most dangerous. Cool white LEDs look, at first glance to be just a bit less dangerous than sunlight because of all that blue, but the least dangerous UV is UVA, wich is defined as starting at 400 nm (the shorter the wavelength, the smaller the number, the more dangerous). Notice that even the cool white LED doesn’t begin to produce significant amounts of energy until about 425 nm. Here’s the scoop on what UV is, and what it does to your body from the Skin Cancer Foundation.
https://www.skincancer.org/prevention/uva-and-uvb
What a load of nonsense!
LEDs are not going to go away, so the best way to mitigate the problem of blue light at inappropriate times is to use low colour temperature LEDs, in which the blue light content is substantially reduced. If deployed for street lighting, then the colour temperature should not exceed 2,200K, and preferably less, say 1,750K, so that the give an orange glow. In addition, in residential and suburban areas they should be fully recessed into their housings, motion operated and subject to an 11p.m. till dawn curfew. As far as I know this has yet to be implemented, but it is the only solution to all the downsides of lighting at night.
Candles are a fire risk risking life and fires and incandescent bulbs cause global warming risking life.
An interesting documentary on a related topic is called
“The Light Bulb Conspiracy”.
Easy to find with an internet or YouTube search.
A great story about a conspiracy regarding planned obsolescence.
The very earliest LEDs were red… would a mix of them help? They have LED stage lights that do “16 million” colors (RGB FF FF FF )but the “white” is a bit blue. I wonder if it’s just a control and balance issue.