Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi all. I have a ptoblem with the artificial lights at work. The easiest description is headaches .. but it seems more than that.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to mitigate this issue short of not being around those lights.
Do tinted lenses work? If so, is it a specixl tint?
Many thanks.
I had just posted a rather long response and it's mysteriously gone! Have a look at this link.
https://lightaware.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/LightAware-response-to-new-ecodesign-requirements-for-lighting-products-consultation.pdf
Summarising my suggestions:
1. Bring a halogen desk lamp to break up flicker and fill in the spectrum. They're not illegal for those of us with light sensitivity.
2. find polarised and / or rose tinted glasses but they won't fill in the spectrum.
3. do your research and create a case to be moved to a location with a window - natural light source or ask to work several hours in an area exposed to natural light.
4. have a good mix of halogen / LED at home. Halogen can be made energy efficient, it just hasn't due to what's call Planned Obsolescence. For every one halogen bulb, you'll need to turn on a great deal of LEDs, but we cannot see well due to the lack of spectrum, especially the lack of infrared.
https://lightaware.org/
We are being greenwashed. LEDs aren't just depleting Rare Earth at an alarming rate, but for a good amount of us, they are absolute Sensory Torture. The human eye is supposed to be sensitive to light: too much and the wrong balance is supposed to create a sense of danger through stress and anxiety. The body will manifest unresolved stress from sensory assault even if one’s psychology is filtering it out.
LEDs are also being sold for their Brilliance as a brighter source of light than filament sources. But the Eyes needs a Full balanced Spectrum of Colour including Near InfraRed to see with Contrast. Our photoreceptors borrow from Infrared to see with better clarity at night[i]. LEDs do not emit Infrared and modern light pollution interferes with natural sources of infrared radiation in the night sky emitted by stars and planets.
Reducing light pollution isn’t just crucial for eye sight but also Scientific Research which relies on infrared Radiation: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/light-pollution-is-dimming-our-view-of-the-sky-and-its-getting-worse/
[i] The human eye needs Infrared Light
This is largely under-researched. But understanding how the eyes perceive brilliance and clarity with cones and rods can understand our need for NIR and IR by understanding colour blindness and night vision technology.
There are forums with Colourblind individuals experiencing a better ability to see in the dark https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/107208/do-color-blind-people-have-more-rod-cells-in-their-retinae-than-the-normally-sig
Currently, the theory is loosely based on their reliance of Rods, accessing a wider range of the spectrum than cones https://iovs.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2122885
We can see a wider spectrum than is thought: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20150727-what-are-the-limits-of-human-vision
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6815255/ “Although the practical visible light range for human vision is considered to be 400 to 720 nm, numerous reports exist of perception in the near infrared. Thus, it is now accepted that, given a sufficiently powerful source of IR light, humans can respond to radiation at wavelengths as long as 1355 nm”
There's a lack of study in to Infrared, but now blue lights are contributing to an impending ecological disaster, I hope we'll see more. The Rods in our eyes borrow from IR to see with clarity. Our cones use UV to see with brilliance. Our Rods take over at night, part of a human cycle. They respond slower but deeper to light and are the cause of flash blindness.
Here is some further research out of interest:
The increase on human and ecological health is becoming increasingly prevalent. This toxic effect of “the transition to LEDs in the UK “poorly considered” the ecological and human costs of such a policy” was found in this article in 2022 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/14/increase-in-led-lighting-risks-harming-human-and-animal-health