Light pollution-A cause of eye diseases

Light pollution-A cause of eye diseases

  In my blogs, I talked about several different pollution which are air pollution, visual pollution and E-waste. And in this blog, I want to talk about the other pollution which is called light pollution. According to Wikipedia, the light pollution also known as photopollution or luminous pollution, is excessive, misdirected, or obtrusive artificial light. Pollution is the adding -of/ added light itself, in analogy to added sound, carbon dioxide, etc.

Light pollution compares with starlight in the night sky for residents, interferes with astronomical observatories, and like any other form of pollution, disrupts ecosystems and has adverse health effects, and the pollution can be divided into to major categories:

• Unpleasant light that intrudes on an otherwise natural or low-light setting
• Excessive light (generally means indoors' lights) that leads to discomfort and adverse health effects

  The consequences of this kind of issue can be seen as the following:

• Energy waste
• Effects on animal and human health and psychology
• Disruption of ecosystem
• Effect on astronomy
• Increase in atmospheric pollution
• Reduction of natural sky polarization

  The reduction of this issue includes many things such as reducing sky glow, reducing glare, reducing light trespass, and reducing clutter. And some possible solutions include (Wikipedia):

1. Utilizing light sources of minimum intensity necessary to accomplish the light's purpose
2.  Turning lights off using a timer or occupancy sensor or manually when not needed
3. Improving lighting fixtures, so that they direct their light more accurately towards where it is needed, and with fewer side effects
4. Adjusting the type of lights used, so that the light waves emitted are those that are less likely to cause severe light pollution problems. Mercury, metal halide and above all first generation of blue-light LED road luminaires are much more pollutant than sodium lamps: Earth atmosphere scatters and transmits blue light better than yellow or red light. It is a common experience observing "glare" and "fog" around and below LED road luminaires as soon as air humidity increases, while orange sodium lamp luminaires are less prone to show this phenomenon
5. Evaluating existing lighting plans, and re-designing some or all of the plans depending on whether existing light is actually needed

  I hope that we can mitigate this kind of issue and help to protect our planet to let we human beings live in a beautiful and environmental friendly earth.



Picture from the following website:
http://blogs.plos.org/citizensci/2013/05/10/two-new-citizen-science-apps-to-measure-light-pollution/