First, we had the nice rotund incandescent bulbs. It was with us for many decades. It has been around for over a century, in fact. And it served humanity faithfully and sincerely for multiple generations.
Then came the energy-saving CFL light bulbs. There was a big push to move to the energy-saving lighting. And so we did. Most residential houses in the country have moved to CFL light bulbs.
But the more recent trend in lighting is to use LED (light-emitting diode) lights. It is supposed to be brighter and more energy-efficient than the CFL bulbs. And we can already see many people making a beeline to change their lighting in their houses so they can have the latest LED lights. Several cities across the world have already installed LED bulbs for street lights. Some cities in the nation even boast of having only LED bulbs for street-lights.
So far this news appears appears clean, positive and energy-efficient to boot. But wait there’s more.
Did you know that you and your family could be going blind because of the LED lights?
A vision researcher from Complutense University in Madrid had earlier discovered that exposure to LED lights can cause irreparable harm to the retina of the eye. In April this year, Public Health England (which is an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care in the United Kingdom) warned that LED street lights can disrupt sleep, resulting in a “permanent jet lag” and that the blue colour of the lights can also result in damage to the retina in the eye.
Dr. Kirsten North, an optometrist in Ottawa, Canada, says that the blue light found in LED bulbs can damage retina cells and cause cataracts to develop sooner.
So LED lights are now linked to permanent blindness.
If you think that this is bad enough, the bad news for LED lights does not stop there. The case for LED lights is actually worse. LED lights are not only being blamed for blindness, but also said to cause to cancer!
Yes! LED light dramatically increases rates of breast and prostate cancer, according to a recent study conducted by researchers from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) and University of Exeter in the UK. The analysis of more than 4,000 Spanish people living in multiple, separate regions of Spain clearly established a link between exposure to LED lighting and a doubling of the risk of prostate cancer, as well as a 1.5-times higher chance of breast cancer.
It is natural blue light that controls our circadian rhythm, telling our bodies when it is day and when it is night. Scientists believe that the “blue light” emitted by the LEDs may be disrupting the body’s circadian rhythm, which in turn affects hormone levels. Both breast and prostate cancers are known to be hormone-related and so this reasoning is sensible.
So now, we have the LED lights causing blindness through retina damage, causing cataracts to develop sooner and breast cancer and prostate cancer. This is definitely a big shock since so many cities and households have moved exclusively to LED lights.
You may go and replace all your LED lights with CFL lights. That is probably not a bad idea. But please keep in mind CFL lights do emit some amount of UV (ultraviolet) rays.
If you want to be 100% safe, then you would need to go back to the good old incandescent bulbs!
And the infrared radiation generated by incandescent light bulbs is actually beneficial to your health, and so very much worth the extra cost in electricity. According to Dr. Alexander Wunsch, an expert on photobiology, this near-infrared radiation is critical for mitochondrial and eye health. It plays an important role in biological energy production in addition to aiding with wound healing and anti-aging.
So folks, say Yes to old fashioned lighting and switch the 100-year-old incandescent bulbs. You will be helping your family maintain good health.