Health, Environment & Well-Being

LpR Article | Research | Health + Environment | Environment | Jul 30, 2020

The Adverse Ecological Impacts of Light Pollution: LEDs' Role in Mitigation

With the negative effects of artificial light at night on ecosystems increasingly well-understood, attention is now turning to the ways in which these impacts can be mitigated through uptake of novel technology and lighting strategies. Dr. Callum J. Macgregor, post-doctoral research associate at the Department of Biology of the University of York, and Dr. Darren M. Evans from the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences of the Newcastle University, discuss the current evidence for costs and opportunities associated with uptake of LED lighting and highlight important directions for future investigation. Read more »

On Life Cycle Assessment to Quantify the Environmental Impact of Lighting Products

The lighting industry has made great efforts to increase energy efficiency around the world with a strong participation from governmental organizations, multilateral organizations and agencies. However, energy consumption is not the only aspect that needs to be considered for transforming the lighting industry. Víctor Ferreira, Deidre Wolff, and Cristina Corchero from Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC) will explore relevant environmental metrics to help inform the reader about circular economy and Industry 4.0 strategies to achieve a sustainable lighting product. Read more »

Environment | Commentary | Resources | Health + Environment | Dec 16, 2019

Care, Caution & Awareness Are Needed When Using LED Lights

Kyra Xavia is a researcher, educator and investigative journalist based in New Zealand. Her roles as general secretary of the Light and Lighting Research Consortium (LLRC), delegate for the International Dark Sky Association (IDA), New Zealand Ambassador for Women in Lighting 2019, and co-leader of the Dunedin Dark Skies Group, involve educating decision-makers and the public about the importance of responsible lighting, nocturnal placemaking and the value of darkness. Recognised in New Zealand and abroad for her advocacy in these matters, Kyra has co-authored research papers and published articles specific to this subject. Kyra has recently been awarded with The Dark Sky Defender Award. Read more »

Study Reveals How Age Affects Perception of White LED Light

Although LEDs are increasingly used in low-energy lighting and displays, consumers sometimes find their light harsh or unpleasant. Findings from a new study point to the need to take age-related perception differences into account when designing white LED lighting that is more pleasing to the eye. Read more »

Circadian-Friendly Light Emitters: From CCT-Tuning to Blue-Free Technology

Common levels of blue radiation are sufficient to disrupt the circadian cycle, calling for blue-depleted emitters in the evening. Most current solutions employ low-CCT and suffer from poor light quality. Aurelien David, chief scientist at Soraa explains the melanopic lumen and its possible sources of inaccuracy related to the uncertainty in assessing the circadian action spectrum. In addition, he also discusses the concept of a blue-free emitter with minimal melanopic lumen at very low CCT and how such a spectrum providing a good light quality can be optimized. Read more »

Healthy Light - LED Technology for Health and Care Applications

The right light, at any time during the day or night, is absolutely essential for health and well-being especially in health and care applications. Peter Haumer, Head of Technical Sales at Lumitech/Kiteo reveals why, besides full spectrum and high color rendering, mimicking real daylight conditions with extended daylight curves, a direct and an indirect component (CCT 1.800–16.000 K), are essential. The article discusses the benefits that can be derived from special colors for medical staff, patients and residents. Read more »

Implications for Human-Centric Lighting Design in Tropical Nursing Homes: A Pilot Study

Light synchronizes our physiological and psychological rhythms to the 24-hour rhythm of the ambient changes. For the elderly, adequate environments to compensate for increasing frailty and sensory loss are crucial. Dr. Szu-Cheng Chien, Assistant Professor at the Singapore Institute of Technology reports from a pilot study that aimed to explore HCL design strategies in nursing homes in Singapore. Pre-/post implementation user surveys and quantitative evaluations were conducted. Read more »

Scientific Study Demonstrates Positive Effects of Daylight LED on Visual Comfort, Melatonin, Mood, Waking Performance, and Sleep

There has been an increase in research activity on the relationship between light and human bio-function, including a recent scientific study focusing on the effects of light spectrum on sleep quality, visual comfort, well-being and daytime alertness conducted by Prof. Christian Cajochen and his team at the University of Basel in Switzerland, entitled: "Effect of Daylight LED on Visual Comfort, Melatonin, Mood, Waking Performance, and Sleep." Read more »

Melanopic Green - The Other Side of Blue

LpR 71 Article - page 74: For years now, there has been a controversial discussion about the amount of blue light in LEDs. Medical studies have shown that, depending on the amount, blue light at night disrupts the circadian rhythm. As a result, warm white (<3000 K) light sources are often touted as a solution for street lighting as well. Ian Ashdown, P. Eng. (Ret.), FIES Senior Scientist at SunTracker Technologies discusses whether or not it is sufficient to only look at the CDT or if other wavelengths and aspects should be considered. Numerous medical studies have shown that exposure to blue light at night suppresses the production of melatonin by the pineal gland in our brains and so disrupts our circadian rhythms. As a result, we may have difficulty sleeping. It is therefore only common sense that we should specify warm white (3000 K) light sources wherever possible, especially for street lighting. - True or false? Read more »

Resources | LpR Article | Research | Environment | Mar 26, 2019

When Nights Are No Longer Dark: Effects of Artificial Light at Night on Agroecosystems

In recent decades, artificial lighting has become an integral part of the modern world. While the use of artificial light at night (ALAN) greatly benefits people, it often has unintended, negative consequences for wildlife and ecosystems. In particular, the increasing use of LED lighting raises ecological concerns due to its high content of blue light, to which many organisms are sensitive. Dr. Maja Grubisic, Researcher at the Leibniz-Institute and Guest Lecturer at Free University Berlin discusses how ALAN can directly and indirectly influence agroecosystems, with potential consequences for food production and biodiversity. Given the current lack of integrative studies on this important topic, the better understanding of effects of ALAN in agroecosystems is urgently needed. Read more »

Resources | LpR Article | Research | Environment | Mar 26, 2019

Hazard or Hope? LEDs and Wildlife

LpR 70 Article, page 52: The introduction and widespread uptake of LEDs as outdoor lighting has caused no small amount of concern amongst conservation biologists. The prevailing impression that LEDs are always blue-white is well founded as adoption of LEDs for streetlights were invariably high color temperatures and with the deterioration of phosphors the blue wavelengths penetrated even more. But LEDs do have characteristics that differentiate them from other light sources and may allow for the reduction of environmental effects of lighting on species and habitats: direction, duration, intensity, and spectrum. Travis Longcore, Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California's School of Architecture, sheds light on all these aspects. Read more »

Lighting and Emergency Dept. Clinician Wellness and Performance Improvement

LpR 70 Article, page 38: Short wavelength ("blue") light is known for its strong impact on humans covering "visual" function, wellness and performance of humans. Lighting has been recognized to have an effect on clinician wellness and performance as well as the occurence of medical errors. In a pilot study, Octavio L. Perez, Ph.D, WELL Accredited Professional and Adjunct Researcher at the Department of Population Health Science and Policy, and his team of scientists and physicians, Christopher Strother, Richard Vincent, Barbara Rabin and Harold S. Kaplan, from the Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, systematically investigated if and how a radically new lighting concept could improve wellness and performance in an emergency department. Read more »

3D Bio-Optical Models Reveals How the Human Body Uses the Entire Solar Spectrum

History teaches that global changes to the public's environment mandate a higher level of scrutiny to ensure that we first do no harm. In "Melatonin and the Optics of the Human Body" published in the journal Melatonin Research, Zimmerman and Reiter combine optical ray tracing from lighting and ESR data from the medical industry to model for the first time the 3D free radical distributions generate by lighting sources in the human body. Read more »

A Near Infrared Enhanced LED Lighting Approach

With the evolution of LED lighting, one topic has come more and more in the focus of the lighting industry: Human Centric Lighting (HCL). While HCL is not clearly defined, a common understanding is that this is light and lighting that supports health and the well-being of humans. Some new proposals are going beyond the approach of providing just visible light in adequate quality, but also to providing invisible radiation, UV and/or NIR that support health and well-being. Some research and the evolution of humans show clear evidence for positive effects of this kind of illumination. Scott Zimmerman, CEO at Silas, presents a new approach that adds NIR radiation to LED illumination. He explains the background of this idea, how it also improves the quality of visible light and discusses the health benefits. Read more »

Tech-Talks Bregenz | Lp Article | Human Centric Lighting | Apr 22, 2018

Tech-Talks BREGENZ - Fred Maxik, Founder & CTO, Lighting Science Group

LED light in combination with advanced controls, and here especially IoT capabilities, opened several new options in lighting. In this context, the term Human Centric Lighting, and more recently, the term Biologically Active Light have become trendy. Fred Maxik, founder and CTO of the Lighting Science Group, who held the keynote speech at LpS 2017, recognized these opportunities in a very early stage when most other manufacturers were still struggling with the challenges of the new technology. In the interview he explains what his perception of light is and its importance in our lives. He gives insights into his philosophy and ideas on which criteria artificial lighting has to fulfill in order to live up to the promising terms „Human Centric Lighting“ and „Biologically Active Light“. Read more »

Repro-Light - Looking for a Sustainable and Modular Luminaire Architecture

The Repro-light project aims to re-conceptualize the European lighting industry towards more sustainability and competitiveness in terms of production and time to market. This will be achieved through the implementation of modular luminaire architecture and a smart production scheme, demonstrated by the development of a reconfigurable customized LED luminaire designed to improve the customers’ health. Read more »

Resources | LpR Article | Environment | Oct 31, 2017

A World of LED Lights - The Cost of Waiting

Today, LEDs dominate the lighting domain. They are efficient and manufacturers understand how to implement them for different lighting applications. While energy efficiency is rather well understood, the impact of the adoption speed is rarely discussed is. Benoit Bataillou, guest author from Pi Lighting, will have a look at the environmental cost of LED production versus the significant energy savings that a full transition to LEDs would bring. In a fictive scenario, he assumes that a transition takes place in a heartbeat today and compares that with the usually supposed scenario of a full transition to LED lights in 2025. Read more »

Tech-Talks BREGENZ - Dr. Wilfried Pohl, Research Director, Bartenbach GmbH

Bartenbach is one of the pioneers in light planning and lighting research. Since Christian Bartenbach Senior founded the engineering office in 1976, the company has been dedicated to light and visual perception. Several lighting inventions made over the years, can be attributed to Bartenbach. Dr. Wilfried Pohl, as a member of the Managing Board and Director of Research at Bartenbach GmbH, has played a substantial role in many developments. LED professional talked with him about Bartenbach’s history, education in the lighting business, the lighting parameters he deems very important, the quality of light, "Human Centric Lighting" and "Biodynamic Lighting“, and how LEDs have changed the light planning and lighting research company, in general. Read more »

CIE Calls for Focused Research Efforts to Support Healthful Lighting Recommendations

Not so long ago, vision scientists thought that light detection - photoreception - was exclusively performed by rod and cone cells in the retina. Photobiologists, however, conclusively demonstrated otherwise with the identification of the intrinsically photoreceptive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) [1]. Whereas rods and cones detect pattern and color, and send this information to the visual cortex, ipRGCs (of which we are learning there are several subtypes) detect irradiance, and route their information to many brain structures. The most thoroughly studied of these is the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus, location of the central circadian clock, where the light and dark signals trigger the offset and onset of production of the hormone melatonin. As shown in figure 1, however, ipRGCs also project to other structures, about which, as yet, we have little information. Read more »

First LightingEurope Summit – An Outstanding Figure in the Lighting Branch, Hands Over His Responsibilities

Diederik de Stoppelaar, one of the most influential and esteemed personalities in the lighting branch, has retired and passed over his responsibilities to Ourania Georgoutsakou. One of his last activities was initiating the first LightingEurope Summit, a one-day program, where a number of respected and eloquent lecturers were invited to speak. The venue, The Steigenberg Wiltcher's, in Brussels, was a good choice for this first of its kind event. About 150 lighting specialists, friends, and colleagues of Diederik de Stoppelaar attended the conference and farewell event. Read more »

Swiss Photonics Workshop on Intelligent Efficient Solid State Lighting

Swiss Photonics held their Swiss Solid State Lighting Workshop in the Pantheon at Muttenz near Basel on December 12th of last year. The ambience of the automobile museum was perfect! The program covered a broad range of topics including Human Centric Lighting, Internet of Things and the results of the LASSIE project (Large Area Solid State Lighting Intelligent Efficient: A 7th Framework Program for Research and Technological Development). In the following article, Arno Grabher-Meyer, Editor-in-Chief at LED professional, summarizes the highlights. Read more »

Latest Research Publications in the Journal of Solid State Lighting

On December 24th and 29th, 2015, three new articles have been published in the SpringerOpen Journal of Solid State Lighting. The three articles are titled "Optical Role of Die Attach Adhesive for White LED Emitters: Light Output Enhancement without Chip-Level Reflectors", "The Importance of Intrinsically Photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cells and Implications for Lighting Design", and "Towards Perceptual Accuracy in 3D Visualizations of Illuminated Indoor Environments". Read more »