How LED Lighting May Compromise Human Health
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How LED Lighting May Compromise Human Health |
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Can light affect your health?
The hidden dangers of light-emitting diode (LED) lighting that most people are
completely unaware of.
Largely
as a result of energy efficiency, there's been a major transition to using LED
as a primary indoor light source. In this regard, it worked like a charm,
reducing energy requirements by as much as 95 percent compared to incandescent
thermal analog sources of lighting.
However, the heat generated by incandescent light bulbs, which is infrared
radiation, is actually beneficial to your health, and hence worth the extra
cost.
If
you chose to ignore these new insights, it can have very serious long-term
ramifications. It could lead to
age-related macular degeneration
(AMD), which is the leading cause of blindness
Other health problems rooted in mitochondrial dysfunction may also be
exacerbated, and these run the gamut from metabolic disorder to cancer.
THE LED light sources, are only energy efficient as long as you take the visible
part of the spectrum [into account] …
Near-infrared is what's missing in non-thermal artificial light sources like
LED.
Infrared-A or near-infrared is the beginning of the invisible light spectrum
following red. This in turn is followed by infrared-B (mid-infrared) and
infrared-C (far-infrared). The near-infrared range
affects your health in a number of important ways. For example, it helps prime
the cells in your retina for repair and regenerate.
Since LEDs have virtually no infrared and an excess of blue light that generates
reactive oxygen species (ROS), this explains why LEDs are so harmful for your
eyes and overall health.
So, when buying LEDs, one way to get a healthier light is to look at the CRI.
Sunlight is the gold standard and has a CRI of 100. So do incandescent light
bulbs and candles. What you're looking for is a light that has an R9 (full red
spectrum) CRI of about 97, which is the closest you'll ever get to a natural
light with an LED. Another factor to look at is the color temperature. There are
two different kinds of color temperature:
LED light exposure is a very serious danger, especially if you are in a room
without natural light. The biological risks are somewhat mitigated if you have
plenty of sunlight streaming through windows. At night, LEDs become a greater
danger no matter whether you're in a windowless room or not, as there is no
counterbalancing near-infrared light.
Led need more research for public health?