LED streetlights may be harming your eyes. Read to know how and why

Cities get their beauty because of lightning in the night. You can see how beautiful Paris, Rome, New York and many other cities look during the night time. All that is possible due to the lighting of the city in the night, but somewhere all that lightning is causing damage to the environment and burning a significant hole in the budget of the government running the cities. Therefore, some cities in the US and around the world have decided to go the eco-friendly and economically viable route of installing LED lights in the streets of their cities. But the American Medical Association has sounded a warning bell on the use of these LEDs. Read to find out more.

1 LED Streetlights

You must have seen old yellowish orange streetlights that still work on either normal light bulbs or high powered halogen bulbs. These bulbs consume a lot of electricity and can cost a lot more in power bills for governments running the cities. Therefore, many US cities decided to switch the old street lighting for the newer LED lighting. LED lighting has proven to be cost effective and last longer than the older bulbs. Plus, they are easy to maintain and give drivers a better view when it comes to seeing the road clearly. They illuminate the road better and much evenly, so that drivers and walkers can see the road and sidewalks with ease. But some cities have overplayed their hand, putting the LEDs in place. The American Medical Association has issued a warning that these LED lights can have a major side-effect on your health.

2 The harmful side-effects

Citizens and drivers of Davis, California actually complained to the city officials about the extra brightness of the LED streetlights and the glare that came off the road, making it difficult for them to see the road properly and it was even causing harm to their eyes. The medical association found out that at a certain color temperature (CT), the LED lights could actually cause irreparable damage to the eyes. The AMA recommends that the lightning should not exceed CT of 3000 Kelvin. Some cities had turned the CT of LEDs upto 4000K, which gave out blue color, which caused damage to the retinas at a certain wavelength. Therefore AMA recommended that the LEDs should be used at the lowest possible brightness and shields should be installed to reduce the glare and harm to eyes. Also the brightness may cause harm to people’s sleep rhythms and change the migratory patterns of birds, causing pollution.