Increase in LED lighting ‘risks harming human and animal health’

Sunspark

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/14/increase-in-led-lighting-risks-harming-human-and-animal-health

The Europeans have started to talk about this topic. I am interested to see where it leads.

The point about the insects is important since we all die if there are no insects and I am old enough to remember when there used to be a lot more insects than now.

seeker_of_no_light

Kinda hoped that the article would have delved into other issues aside from blue light, but it's a start I guess. However, even though I'm quite aware that light during the night messes up insects' nocturnal routines, I do think that the blue part of the light spectrum isn't the only thing affecting them, because as for my anecdotal evidence, I just had a bee a few weeks ago at 3 or 4 o'clock a.m. aggressively trying to get through one of the fly screens on one of my bedroom windows even though the superwarm 1700K light with 83 CRI that I'm using in that room has far less blue light than a regular light bulb.

Sunspark

seeker_of_no_light If it's 3-4 am, you should be seeking no light. 😉

JTL

seeker_of_no_light Kinda hoped that the article would have delved into other issues aside from blue light, but it's a start I guess

What I think the issues that are closer to "solved" (e.g blue light, PWM) have in common is that they have a clear "cause and effect" relationship towards the problem and potential solutions.

First monitor manufacturers merely added "blue light reduction" features that functioned by altering the displayed image not dissimilar to f.lux so many people dismissed it as a gimmick that ruins image quality as a net downgrade from older CCFL and CRT monitors where I don't recall blue light having been a major concern.

However when that wasn't enough one could assume more "research and development" was done behind the scenes because GB-r based backlights became a feature for "professional" monitors, and I vaguely recall people in other communities having described them as being "less blue" and being more comfortable compared to conventional LED backlit monitors.

I'm not saying this is a "be and end all" solution either, but now there's "EyeSafe" certification which aims to create a standard for LED backlit displays that emit less blue light while not distorting the colors or other image quality properties. TFTCentral in their review of the new Alienware AW3423DW QD-OLED monitor note that the spectrum is more balanced compared to conventional LED backlights, but its still off the mark compared to the new "EyeSafe" certification, so maybe there's still pragmatic improvements to be made there.