LEDs could worsen light pollution

October 13th, 2009

Photo via Flickr: Makelessnoise

Just as I was venting about the ugliness of CFL bulbs and hoping for a lower-cost LED to hit the market, a new report brings to light (sorry) a potentially devastating consequence of widespread LED adoption: The bluish-white light that outdoor LED bulbs emit could threaten people and wildlife, say authorities at the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA).

It’s been well publicized that bluish-white light from TVs and other electronics can negatively affect melatonin production (melatonin is the “sleep hormone”), which is why holistic docs like Andrew Weil advise avoiding them at night. But what if LED lighting becomes the norm for outdoor lighting in suburban parking lots and city streets?

Light pollution is already a serious problem — without the double blackout curtains in our bedroom to keep out the Los Angeles glare, we’d never be able to fall asleep at night — but the IDA says that LED lighting could increase the pollution even more, since short wavelength light increases sky glow disproportionately. And wildlife, like we do, depend on natural cycles of daylight and true darkness for their biological processes. And they can’t reach for a cup of coffee in the morning if their sleep has been disrupted.

Now, I don’t think we should throw out the baby with the bath water — replacing traditional incandescents with LED lighting has the potential to seriously reduce CO2 emissions, and dark skies won’t mean anything to us if all of Antarctica has melted – but we can be smart about implementing them in ways that will curtail light pollution.

Read more about how the environmental impact of LEDs here.

–Jennifer Grayson