AMA adopts better LED lighting proposal June 14,
2016. Annual Meeting of the American Medical
Association (AMA) adopted guidance for communities
on selecting among LED lighting options to minimize
potential harmful human and environmental effects.
See here.
Doctors Issue Warning About LED Streetlights: CNN
article here. The blue spike in LED streetlights is
problematic for humans and wildlife.
Chart here shows result of spectrometer
measurements of LED 4000 Kelvin streetlight and the
natural Moonlight. Blue makes ‘daylight’ but is bad
for us at nighttime.
BLUE LIGHT has a DARK SIDE. Article by Harvard
Health Letter covering blue light inside and outside
your house - read it here. Avoiding bright, blue-
white, lighting at night and avoiding blue from cell
phones and TV’s. Apps can now help you reduce blue
at night from cell phones. Filter glasses can help
with late night TV. Be smart with lighting at night.
This video is from Russel Reiter, MD, PhD retired.
The doctor explains the eye sensor and our body’s
clock that can be mis-adjusted by bad nighttime
lighting. We now are learning new LED streetlights
are ‘daylight’ models.
New cobra shaped LED streetlights at 3000 Kelvin or
lower, are available since 2016. More options today!
City of Phoenix avoids expensive mistake and chooses
to reduce the blue in LED with new 2700K LED soft-
white fixtures!!! Some cities are even converting
4000K to 2700K LED models to restore the quality of
outdoor life with better streetlights.
Tucson picked LED street and neighborhood lighting
below 3000 Kelvin see and read how they chose
better LED lighting here.
Above: Moon Valley Park is one
that got extensive first generation
LED lighting installed. This fixture
is a 4000K LED. However some
lights within the Park have
5000 Kelvin light emitting diodes
installed which have even more
blue in the spectrum - see below.
Right: Light meter shows blue
spike from a 4000 Kelvin Park light
fixture. This may look good in a
photograph above; but this ‘bright
blue white’ lighting has been
shown to make it harder to see
into dark areas at night and is bad
for our health.
ASENSETEK Passport Spectrometer used on all
spectrum and Kelvin analysis; learn more here.
From 2012-16 more than 1,500 new LED streetlights
had been installed in Phoenix as old amber bulbs
needed replacement. City of Phoenix chose bright
white 4000K GE brand LED cobra fixtures. Many
neighborhoods begun raising concerns about the
quality of life for all of our city. Bright white 4000
Kelvin LED nighttime makes it hard to see into
darkness and is unhealthy. Bright daylight LED all
night long is bad for our heath is reduces safety.
A 4000 Kelvin LED light fixture is being tested in
Mountain View Park. When people see the light in real
life, rather then in a photo, they see the fixture is
‘blinding’, ‘harsh’, and ‘horrible’. It makes seeing into
the Preserve impossible since the light is to bright.
Eye pupil blinded by the LED light.
Here are some neighborhoods struggling with
new LED streetlights that are painful. (These
are from 2015-16.)
Las Vegas…….glare from new LED streetlights
creates near accident for Council member.
New York….tough luck, daylight all night. LED
Streetlights in Brooklyn Are Saving Energy but
Exhausting Residents.
Vancouver, BC…..New 4000K LED streetlights
spark concerns.
PHOENIX got the opportunity to make a better
choice now since more types of LED streetlights
are available. GOOD NEWS - 4000 Kelvin
streetlights were rejected by residents for our
streets, parks, and neighborhoods via the
city survey. But survey didn’t even test the
better 2700K soft-white fixture. Folks that
saw 2700K LED lights quickly picked it as the
best option to save energy, better safety, and
for better visibility. Great choice by PHX also!
Bad ‘daylight’
LED streetlights
at nighttime
Enlarge jpg
to see more on
Moon Valley
Park and the
unfortunate
characteristics
of ‘first
generation’
bad blue LED
lighting (2017).
AVOID lighting above
3000K at night…2700K
soft-white is better.
AVOID lighting above
3000K at night…2700K
soft-white is better.