Minimising Light Pollution - Bright Doesn’t Equal Safe
Filed Under Energy Efficient Lights, Light Pollution
Flagstaff is located in the dry West and it doesn’t have a lot of trees to block the street lights within the city and the air is fairly clean. This means that the distance that light pollution travels is astonishingly far. For example, from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon atr night, you can see the lights of Phoenix, as well as Las Vegas.
As a result, the city has strict lighting ordnances.
Health Impacts of Bright Night Lighting
Scientists are now just starting to understand the impact of nighttime lighting on animals and humans. Bright lights confuse animals and can alter everything.
Examples: frogs’ mating activities are disturbed, communication among coyotes is afected, baby turtles get confused finding their way to the sea and nocturnally migrating birds become disoriented.
The effects also extend to human health with new research suggesting that living in a neighborhood that’s too bright at night can interfere with the production of a tumor-suppressing hormone in women, raising the risk of breast cancer.
Bright Doesn’t Mean Safe
Contrary to what most people believe, the key to visibility isn’t intense light, but evenly spread light. Brighter isn’t safer and can even be more dangerous.
If a building has a typically blinding white, security lighting you can’t readily see someone in the shadows between lights. Your eyes can’t deal efectively with the contrast.
So stark white spotlights, or the dazzling white lights used at sportsfields that are visible for miles are not as effective as strategically placed, well-shielded fixtures that blanket the surrounds of a building in a mellow light.
Another example: At Flagstaff’s Thorpe Park shielded fixtures were installed last year and players can actually see the ball better without “light bombs” in their eyes.
This ”mellow lighting” can be provided by energy efficient and/or solar outdoor lights
So turn the brightness down to be safer, save yourself money and help the environment by using energy efficient lighting
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