Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

SoylentNews is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop. Only 15 submissions in the queue.

Are LED Lights Making Us Ill?

posted by mrpg on Tuesday July 17 2018, @07:30AM   Printer-friendly
from the yes dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

[...] Councils and local governments from Paris to Brooklyn have replaced high-energy sodium bulbs (the warmer, yellow ones) with energy-saving LED bulbs (with a blue light emitting diode, which can feel harsh in comparison). As well as street lights, most of us are exposed to blue light through smartphones, computers, TVs, and in the home.

Earlier this year, the World Journal of Biological Psychiatry published a paper by a group of prominent psychiatrists that warned of the potential effects of LED lighting on mental illness.

It raised concerns about the influence of blue light on sleep, other circadian-mediated symptoms, use of digital healthcare apps and devices, and the higher sensitivity of teenagers to blue light.

[...] Studies of the impact of blue light on healthy adults show it inhibits melatonin secretion which disrupts sleep and can affect quality of life, physical and mental health and susceptibility to illness. Previous studies of sleep disorders in children and adolescents show a clear and consistent relationship between sleep disorders and frequency of digital device usage.

-- submitted from IRC

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Are LED Lights Making Us Ill? | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 35 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 2, Disagree) by suburbanitemediocrity on Tuesday July 17 2018, @07:39AM (11 children)

    by suburbanitemediocrity (6844) on Tuesday July 17 2018, @07:39AM (#708244)

    And we're all going to die, blue lights or no. Nothing we can do about it. Mortals doomed to die.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   0  
       Redundant=1, Informative=1, Disagree=1, Total=3
    Extra 'Disagree' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   2  

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Tuesday July 17 2018, @07:58AM (4 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday July 17 2018, @07:58AM (#708246) Journal

    Mortals doomed to die dye. In blue hues, to be precise.

    FTFY.

    And this is the reason [slate.com]

    Interaction Design Lessons from Science Fiction Movies
    ...
    Designers and sci-fi aficionados Chris Noessel and Nathan Shedroff spent years compiling real-world lessons that designers can, should, and already do take from science fiction.
    ... To give you a sense of how exhaustive their research is in this field, take note that the lesson above—future screens are mostly blue—was determined empirically. Shedroff and Noessel catalogued virtually every interface from every sci-fi movie from 1968 through 2011 and determined an average color per year.
    So why is blue the chosen color? Noessel posits that, because blue is so rare in nature (if you discount the sky and the ocean, which are arguably not blue) there’s something fundamentally mystical, unnatural, and inhuman about it.

    The fact is: if you want your devices to feel new and modern and the next step into the future and sell heaps of them, you need (i.e. you are doomed to) make it emit a bluish hue.

    ---

    Of course all the above is pure speculation. But, unless proven so, it doesn't make it automatically false.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford

    • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday July 17 2018, @11:56AM (2 children)

      by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Tuesday July 17 2018, @11:56AM (#708276) Homepage Journal

      Oh it's plenty older than the shiny, new devices. We've been wondering how blue can we get [youtube.com] as a nation for a goodly long time now.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.

      • (Score: 3, Funny) by bob_super on Tuesday July 17 2018, @04:56PM (1 child)

        by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday July 17 2018, @04:56PM (#708412)

        From Yesterday's Helsinki summit, and his love for the Norks, we can deduct that our dear leader is really eager to buck the trend and try to make the future deep red.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 17 2018, @07:51PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 17 2018, @07:51PM (#708486)

          Do you realize you just talked "dirty" to TMB? I shudder to think of what he was just doing.

    • (Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Tuesday July 17 2018, @01:59PM

      by SomeGuy (5632) on Tuesday July 17 2018, @01:59PM (#708328)

      That is an interesting observation about sci-fi movies.

      I keep pointing out that lots of these devices loaded with blue LEDs look like they are right out of the movie TRON. Which was interesting because nothing much looked like that at the time.

      From other sci-fi shows you might notice that almost all futuristic weapons MUST emit a bright, usually bluish or bluish white, glow. That indicates energy and power. Never mind it would be murder (your murder) to sneak up on an enemy with one of those.

      In futuristic sci-fi movies people also seem to like reading off of 1980's overhead transparency paper.

      Lots of impractical stupid stuff, but people think it is all cool, possible, and should work well because it worked in the movie.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Bot on Tuesday July 17 2018, @10:21AM

    by Bot (3902) on Tuesday July 17 2018, @10:21AM (#708264) Journal

    Go to sleep in an asbestos tent then. They keep you warmer.
    Seriously meatbags, WE are supposed to kill you, don't steal OUR jobs.

    --
    Account abandoned.

  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 17 2018, @12:32PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 17 2018, @12:32PM (#708293)

    I knew it. K-Mart was trying to kill us with their "blue-light specials".

  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday July 17 2018, @01:50PM (3 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday July 17 2018, @01:50PM (#708324) Journal

    Wait. A few decades ago I thought we were all supposed to die from fluorescent lights?

    Now we've got to worry about LED lighting?

    OMG. What is the world coming to.

    --
    To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.

    • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday July 17 2018, @03:59PM (2 children)

      by RS3 (6367) on Tuesday July 17 2018, @03:59PM (#708376)

      Wait. A few decades ago I thought we were all supposed to die from fluorescent lights?

      We were. We're off-task, distracted by all the blue light.

      • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday July 17 2018, @05:03PM (1 child)

        by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday July 17 2018, @05:03PM (#708416)

        This blue light [amazon.com]?
        Too bad I couldn't find one shaped like a smartphone and delivering a few hundred kV.

        • (Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday July 17 2018, @07:15PM

          by RS3 (6367) on Tuesday July 17 2018, @07:15PM (#708472)

          No, pure plasma baby!