I was searching for an November 2019 article by Jane Slade in LD+A from IES on the problems of Light Pollution.  It’s not a featured article and that’s a shame.

What I found was an article by John D. Bullough, about everyone loving the white LED outdoor lighting.  That’s simply not the case.  Municipalities have rejected, even sued, to get rid of the institutional looking lighting that made a mess of their neighborhood and intruded on their homes.  Yes, we all love that prison yard look to our community.  Maybe in NYC?

LEDs are being touted as energy savers.  That is true if you do a one for one replacement.  Unfortunately, LED’s require a greater density to achieve the same amount of light coverage.  On top of that, much more LEDs than are required are usually installed making energy savings not as great as was touted. Instead of turning lights off when not needed, lights are left on all night – because we can afford to do that – even when LEDs are instant on/off.  The real financial savings of 5% were noted further down in the article, along with the rebound effect (adding and increasing light levels) – in the small print.

LED luminaires, with optics, can control their beam, and usually direct it into the eyes of drivers and pedestrians, potentially accounting for a rise in pedestrian-vehicle accidents where LEDs are implemented.  Luminaire design, implementation best practices, modeling software, and user competence are sorely lacking when it comes to controlling glare.  LED roadway lights do nothing for safety if their glare and intense light source isn’t properly directed and contained.

LED-lighted outdoor spaces look brighter – because they are.  Lighting professionals and municipal authorities have been fooling people.  V(λ) photometers do NOT measure the blue in the white LEDs.  The photodiode, just like satelite sensors, does not read the 400-500nm portion of visible light very well (nor do they read HPS lighting well either).  In addition, light filters to limit UV and Infrared Light restrict the spectral sensitivity even further.  CIE calls it a Spectral Mismatch.  Both HPS lighting and white LED’s are NOT V(λ) lighting.  Why on earth would you measure them with a V(λ) photometer?  The illumination from white LEDs simply IS brighter – a lot brighter.  I keep hearing and reading this brighter perception statement and it is wrong.  Please refer to my post on how audio engineering points out the improper measurement problem.  Our eyes are telling us right.  If light was sound, all the glass around us would be etched or shattered by high frequencies, but our meters would be telling us, no, no, that sound is not there.

I read the ‘feel safer’ comment all the time.  Folks, feel safer has nothing to do with being safe.  Please stop this nonsense.  Bright light causing high contrast shadows is not safe.  Light at night at continuous photopic levels only is not safe nor healthy.

White LEDs have other problems.  Serious human health problems a environmental problems abound coming from multiple vectors (ways) at once.  Check out my resources page containing more substantial research than I can read at one sitting about the dangers of LED or other artificial lighting at night.

LED’s, while they can be dimmed with adaptive controls, timed, or presence detectors used, that is usually not the case.  Using adaptive controls raises the price and complexity of LED lighting so little money is really saved.  Studies and polls show the majority municipalities do NOT use or plan to use adaptive lighting for roadlighting.  Adaptive capabilities and infrastructure are too expensive and complexities of control are a problem, not to mention whose techno-sphere do you buy into and how well does it play with others.

Finally, the blue-white LEDs are a major factor in light pollution.  The milky white ick that hides the stars is the result.  Birds getting lost because they can’t find the stars and then die in the bright lights of the city IS a problem.  Astronomers complain but, pointing to an earlier post, they are only the canaries in the coal mine.  Responsible lighting is the remedy and is technically possible.  The IES and the professional lighting community needs to come to grips with the problems they are causing.  Of course they sell light, so that is like asking the auto industry or the oil industry to self regulate and make responsible decisions.  Give me the yellow brick road.  HPS is orange, by the way.  Yellow is 3000K…..

Sorry for the scathing review.  Very discouraged to read this article.  It misleads people.

Mark

The Truth

Not the Truth

If light was transformed into audio and measured with a V(λ) light meter, you would hear something like this.  The clip starts with full bandwidth and then is EQ’d, then goes back and forth for comparison.   The audio clip EQ’s portions approximately match what a human photopic V(λ) light meter is ‘seeing’ compared to what the full sound would be.

Below is an analysis of 6500K CCT LED SPD from LRC – Lighting Research Center’s website.

Let’s overlay these two examples.  The horzontal scales are close.  The vertical scale is power on one and sensitivity on the other.  Nontheless, it is easy to see the spectral mismatch between a V(λ) light meter and a 6500K CCT LED.

As an audio engineer I can say, no worthwhile mix, effective analysis, or production can be reached with such a Lo-Fi EQ result.  Not even phone audio is that bad.

The public is being misled, endanangered, complaints ignored, along with human health and evironmental concerns surpressed by lighting professionals who are not using measuring devices properly and for their proper intended purpose.

When I worked as a field engineer for IBM Large Systems, knowing explicitly the limitations, constraints, and proper use for the measuring devices and test equipment was critical.  At best, one could cause a customer an expensive outage.  Worst case, a person could be killed.

While improperly using light meters may not be perceived as a serious issue.  Research is strongly suggesting, even explicitly stating, we should be very careful with our lighting.  Yet, most professionals are being very, very careless.  Whether improper measurements, inaccurate research conclusions, blindly following best practices, or heated opinions over what is common sense, the cause of illness, someone’s death, or ecosystem damage is a serious responsibility.  Lighting professionals and the lighting industry have a great responsibility to get it right.  In my opinion, at the moment, the industry, most professionals, educational centers, and governmental entities are getting it very, very wrong.

An optional, unrelated light pollution comment for the day:  

Keep in mind, the incredible amount of wasted light and energy from light pollution contributes a great amount to climate and air pollution concerns. Don’t even think about talking climate if not addressing light pollution as a major contributer!

Mark

Back in history, a canary was taken into the mines.  Being more sensitive than humans, they would succomb to the toxic gases before the miners would be harmed by exposure.

Today, amateur and professional astronomers are warning about the loss of the night skies due to the improper use of lighting – light pollution.  People who don’t realize the treasure that is slipping away say, “what does that matter?”  Fair question.

To the people who enjoy the beauty of the night sky, it matters a lot.  You don’t have to be any kind of astronomer to enjoy the night sky, at least one that is not turned milky gray by poorly designed and implemented LED lighting.

As the bright visible nebulas and star clusters gradually disappear into the milky glow, a warning flag should be going up.  It’s no different than when factory smokestacks belching smoke and soot in the air seemed normal.  It was just during the day.

Artificial light at night is just as unnatural as those smokestacks.  It’s more damaging, in a myriad of different nefarious ways than the smokestacks ever were.  The effects of ALAN on people are well documented, well known, yet more is being discovered everyday.  The effects on the environment and critters are only just starting to be understood.

Yet it seems the onslaught by development and ‘bad’ best practices continues.  Astronomers, of all types, and people who actually go outside to look up at night are calling out the warning.  There is a canary in the mine who is pushing up daisies and it continues to be mostly ignored.

The canary may have joined the choir eternal but it is still singing out pretty loudly.  Is anyone listening?  Ya know, we’re all next….

Mark

Awhile back, I bookmarked a FAQ from Purdue University Extension about light and trees.

Does Night Lighting Harm Trees?

A few months ago, the Kindergarten Academy in Mechanicsburg planted new trees around the renovated school and parking lot.  A few days ago, I noted many of the new trees looked in bad shape.  We’ve had a hot and dry month.  I thought I’d take a few minutes and check out the trees, with the schools lighting in mind, to see if the all night lights had any part in the condition of the trees.  It was very surprising to find, the side of many of the trees facing the parking lot lights was brown and dying while the opposite side was still mostly green and healthy.  The trees most severely affected were the Tulip Trees, as predicted by the table of tree sensitivity in the article.  This happened in such a short time, over only a couple of months.  I found that surprising.  Even the Oak Trees were affected so I suspect, since they are low sensitivity to ALAN, it may be akin to the lightburn growers using artificial grow lights experience.  The CCT of the lighting at the school measures approximately 6000K.  They do not seem to be what was spec’d in the plans so I can’t be sure what brand or spec’s they have to identify the true SPD.

Just up the street from the new trees were two big trees exhibiting  major stress.  Again, as predicted by the Purdue FAQ, there was a street light embedded in the tree.  Where the light fixture exposed the leaves to its light, that quadrant was mostly dead with brown leaves.  The far side of the tree, away from the street light, was still heathy and green.  The street lights are still HPS although additional street lighting at the Elmwood School, adjacent to one of the stressed trees is high CCT LED.

The Purdue FAQ does not include LED lighting of various SPD’s and I hope to get some updated information.

Once you see the effect that all night light have on trees, you can easily recognize it!  Check it out and let me know if you are seeing the same thing in your communities!  Amazing!  Of course the question becomes, if it is doing this to trees, what is it doing to people?

– Mark

Silverspring Township, in Cumberland County, PA is one of the worst areas for light pollution in our area.  On the Lighttrends app, it is easy to see the extreme level of wasteful lighting and pollution that exists along the Rt 11 Corridor.  Incredibly bad lighting practices abound and municipal awareness, ordinance or enforcement seems to be totally lacking.

One example is the Deloitte complex at the intersection of Rt 11 and Rt 114.  Deloitte is a consult/ perform / engineering.  A company filled with smart, intelligent people.  YET, they leave most of their building lights turned on all night long.  Some windows intermittently draw translucent blinds down but most do not.  The light blazes horizontally into the houses directly across the street along Rt 114.  The houses are bathed all night long in the glow of a false midnight sun.  This is the reason planners need to enact a larger buffers and natural barriers between such office complexes and residential areas.  People live in the houses 24×7.  The offices are mostly empty after hours.  Parking lots along 114, across from people’s homes are empty and lit all night.  There are no functional shields or directional baffles on the parking lot lighting.  All three floors in the two large office buildings are brightly lit, their light spilling out, all night long.  For a company who prides itself and sells itself on intelligence and the control of technology, the wasteful lighting usage and lighting control at their site is incredibly dull.

Again, this is a case of the designer only seeing from the inside of their lighting bubble.  They don’t go outside the lighting bubble to look back from the dark that surrounds them.  Smart people, dumb lighting with no useful purpose.

No matter the ordinances or lack of them, or the understanding of the municipality, Deloitte should do the right thing and control their lighting.

Doloitte is not the only bad lighting hombre in the neighborhood.  The car sales establishments along the Carlisle Pike send up a wasteful glow that can be seen from miles away.  Interestingly, Harley Davidson, is the ONLY vehicle sales company on Rt 11 with properly controlled lighting.  Then we also have the trucking industry, with some of the worst designed, intrusive lighting in the whole county.

Are there solutions?  Yes, easy and inexpensive.  For Deloitte, consider Praesidio Window Films for the building.  You can find more information at Praesidio Window Films

Most parking lot lighting manufacturers have shields to accompany their lights.  Also, consider lower CCT lighting, filters, and adaptive controls for dimming  or turning off unused areas overnight.  In addition, adaptive controls, especially presence or motion detectors can be used to turn off lighting inside the building when no one is present.  These controls will more than pay for themselves in energy savings.

Mark

A couple of posts ago, I wrote about my grand-daughter’s response to a vivid view of the Milky Way above our heads at the beach. Even though we were in a pretty crowded, dense housing area, the stars were crazy brilliant in the sky above us. The beautiful Milky Way was easily visible to our eyes. My granddaughter’s first look through the good binoculars brought a breathless, “WOW!”

So what’s that worth? Could an experience like that translate into a life long passion for a young child? Can a child’s experience of the night sky be the catalyst that launches a lifetime of research and discovery? Could a single experience with the stars inspire a child, who as an adult then greatly advances astronomy or other scientific disciplines?

I would suggest many people, by their actions, would think not. I would also suggest most lighting designers, engineers, manufacturers, installers, architects, municipal planners, and municipal officers think those experiences don’t matter. Even professional organizations like the IESNA continue to argue about proper lighting design, against scientific evidence and common sense. To them, that singular, precious eureka moment of a child and all the beautiful potential of their response doesn’t matter a nit. To many in the lighting industry, a precious night sky experience has little value. If these statements weren’t true, my grandkid’s view of the night sky would be quite different and there would be no need for dark sky advocacy.  The industry, as a whole, is judged as guilty by their actions.

Does it matter? Yes! Yes!! Yes!!!

This week, on Sky and Telescope magazine’s website, I read an article about Margaret Burbidge and you can read it yourself at:

SKY & Telescope: Happy Birthday, Margaret Burbidge

In particular, read the fourth and fifth paragraphs of the article.

A Margaret Burbidge experience is exactly what the lighting industry is stealing from our kids and grandkids. It’s a dull thinking mindset and homogeneous failure of the whole lighting industry to design and implement intelligently, responsibly and ethically – to exhibit care about our children and their future potential.  Notwithstanding the evidence of the human and environmental toll from atrocious, abominable lighting practices, the worst legacy resulting from our godawful use of light will be from the loss of our children’s and grandchildren’s experience of the precious starry, night sky!

What do I want?  For all kids to have as many Margaret Burbidge experiences as possible, and for some of them to be propelled into amazing discoveries and wonderful expressions of human achievement because of the inspiration of the starry night sky!  What precious potential is being stolen from our kids? What brilliant potential is being stolen from us as a people?

This is easy stuff, right?

Mark

This week we are living some American tradition and spending some time at the beach. With the moon gone, the skies were spectacular the last couple nights. Our home galaxy, The Milky Way, is plainly visible in all of its glory. Through my 10X50 binoculars, looking out over the ocean to the east, the stars are amazing.

Tonight, I got out a couple of beach chairs and handed the binoculars to my oldest granddaughter. The Milky Way, with its dark lane, was clearly visible from the horizon, steaming out of the Teapot asterism, rising across the night sky and back over our heads. I showed her where to aim the binoculars and she emphatically said, “Wow! That’s beautiful! She then asked to find some other constellations, viewed Jupiter, and all by herself found Ptolomy’s Cluster.

Again, I’d like to point out the sad state of lighting design and how light pollution steals this amazing source of inspiration and resource from our children. It’s not right. It’s sheer stupidity on the part of professional lighting. The fix is easy, the technology and mechanics is within our grasp, so what’s the big problem?

Today, I read an article from Science Direct. In the US, the sky due to light pollution is 200,000 times brighter than the darkest spot in the US. Washington, D.C. owns the top of the charts for the worst light pollution in the US. That’s TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND times brighter than the darkest place in the US!

Sorry folks, that’s totally ridiculous. I’d like for my grandkids to go out at night, sit in their yard and be amazed and mesmerized by the night sky. I want to hear them say, “Wow! That’s beautiful.” I’d like all kids to have that wonderful experience and become curious about it all.

Problem is, big folks think they need to see like it’s day, at night. They don’t.

Taken with NightCap. Star Trails mode, 51.39 second exposure, 1/2s shutter speed.

Taken with NightCap. Stars mode, 10.04 second exposure, 1/2s shutter speed.

Taken with NightCap

Taken with NightCap. Stars mode, 10.05 second exposure, 1/2s shutter speed.

Taken with NightCap. Stars mode, 10.06 second exposure, 1/2s shutter speed.

Taken with NightCap. Stars mode, 10.05 second exposure, 1/2s shutter speed.

Taken with NightCap

Taken with NightCap. Star Trails mode, 6.21 second exposure, 1/2s shutter speed.

Taken with NightCap. Long Exposure mode, 1.78 second exposure, 1/2s shutter speed.

Taken with NightCap. Stars mode, 10.05 second exposure, 1/2s shutter speed.

The last two nights were beautiful out.  The telescope came out to play with the night sky.  Cool low to the horizon, or should I say everything below 45 degrees was washed out badly from the warehouse complex lighting.  Still there were some nice sights to see.  I stayed up ALMOST all night.

Globe at Night  , is a crazy cool STEM site for kids and families to do some great citizen science.  By actually doing science, you can learn a lot.  Hands on is important.

When I was a kid, the night sky with the moon and planets was inspirational to me.  My view of the night sky led me to imagine space travel and fall in love with all kinds of sciences.  It was the beginning of the space age and I followed the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions and all the sciences they pointed to.  In those days, there was no Internet so the evening news with Walter Cronkite or special broadcasts, like the Christmas Eve from the Moon, the first spacewalks, all the launches,  and the first Moon landing.  I hung on every bit of information I could get in news, magazines and in books.

For me the night sky was full of adventure and promise, a way I could be a part of and touch the exciting happenings of the day.  I learned the constellations, star’s names, places on the Moon, the planets and I could actually see the Milky Way from my suburban backyard.  Mom and Dad bought me a small telescope and I would spend hours in the backyard, looking at the Moon and stars.

This was at a young age.  The first two books I remember were about the Moon, the solar system, rockets and space travel.  I learned how to read with those two books!

My love for science and technology was born out of my love for the night sky.  I never got to be an astronaut or a professional astronomer but it propelled me into a career in IT hardware, software, electronics, music, along with wonderful, enlightening hobbies in astronomy, computer geeky stuff, electronics, and more.

From the night sky and what it drew me to, I learned critical thinking skills, developed a love for lifelong learning, patience, love for reading, a love for discovery, a love for nature’s beauty, a love for physics, cosmology, science, a love for knowing about things, a heathy curiousity, an ability to connect seemingly unconnected information, patient sleuthing, and perseverance.

Most of all, I love to see the curiousity and fascination for a beautiful Creation aroused in my grandkids.  I love to see them be excited to see Saturn’s rings, Jupiter and it’s moons, our Moon, galaxies and star clusters.  I love to see them drawn into the dance and to be inspired to express it all in their own way and in their becoming.  I love to think of them passing this excitement on to their children!

The night sky is the best STEM resource a kid could have, and it’s free!  You want your kids to be interested in science, nature, conservation, technology, music and the arts, world cultures, and so much more?

At odds with this great free resource to inspire and think and matters of faith, is irresponsible outdoor lighting.  Light does not need to be directed up and outwards so that it blinds people and obscures the night sky.  Being piggish about outdoor lighting wastes energy and resource, and is of no value to anyone, including those responsible.  Worse yet, such companies and institutions are stealing something precious from my grandkids.  The companies, institutions, municipalities, developers and designers who light irresponsibly are STEALING this great, free STEM resource from all people.  Worse yet, our institutions of learning are some of the worst offenders.  These are especially the people that should know better.

Irresponsible outdoor lighting is robbing us blind.  The people responsible are robbing this new generation of a beautiful inspiration to learn and express.  That stinks bigtime.

Mark

Warehousing is phototoxic to residential areas

Sorry for the strong article.  It is just the truth of the matter.  Sometimes you just can’t dress up a pig…   (Well, maybe you could if it was Arnold Ziffle)

This is pretty much our view every night.  At bedtime, we draw our blinds and shut drapes because of light from Allen Distribution’s 114 warehouse complex.  Allen Distribution’s lighting makes it difficult to get to sleep and to stay asleep.  Their lights illuminate the back of our house from almost a mile away.  These lights are on at this intensity all night long, year round, even though there is no truck traffic and very few people at the site.  The worst of the skyglow is coming from lighting on the streets leading into the complex where the lux readings are over 20 times the recommended intensity for roadway lighting.  The roadway luminaires are incredibly bright and throw glare to all sides, including into residential areas.

Allen Distribution’s lights have destroyed the enjoyment and use of our backyard deck and patio at night.  There is literally no night sky, just their hideous lights blazing up into the sky.  The luminosity of the sky measures between 50 and 75 times the brightness it should be (Allen Distribution is just one of the co-conspiritors in this mess).

In repeated communications with Bradley Haines, at Allen Distribution, he first suggested it was the pipeline work in the area, then reflection off of snow, and then he stopped communicating.  So here we are in June, there is no snow, just their ugly lights still causing our backyard to be unusable at night.

Does bad lighting and light pollution really matter that much?  Read my previous post and follow the link to the April 2019 ANSES report.  Bad lighting is phototoxic.  Warehousing with bad lighting is phototoxic to the surrounding communities and people, not to mention the environment.

A word to planners: Warehousing and people’s homes do not mix.  

A lot of warehousing expansion is occurring along the Rt 81 corridor, impacting both rural areas and residential areas.  While people like getting their packages the next day and municipalities salivate over the increases the tax base, it is not worth the cost to the community.  To be blunt, warehousing and residential areas do not mix.  Warehousing is not interested in the environment or the health of the people that live around their warehouse facilities.

Lighting is one major way warehousing degrades a community’s environmental space.  It doesn’t have to be that way.  Lighting can be done right.  It just seems warehousing doesn’t know how to do that or doesn’t really care to do lighting properly.  And that is just a sign of how warehousing operates overall, with regards to human health and the environment.  No matter what warehousing says about their care of the environment and people, their actions and facilities speak a louder message.

I hoped the conversation between Bradley Haines and myself could yield benefits for both Allen Distribution and our residential area.   That doesn’t seem to be how the experience is working out.  Allen Distribution’s lighting has serious safety risks to their employees and residents of the surrounding area.  Allen Distribution is wasteful with their energy use and Allen Distribution is a major source of light pollution to the surrounding communities.  We might as well have a coal plant in our backyard belching toxic smoke into the air.

Now, Mechanicsburg is developing the land next to the Allen Distribution Warehouse Complex.  The development is called Legacy Park.  I can’t even imagine purchasing a home in that neighborhood considering the health effects Allen Distibution’s lights would have on my family’s health.  It’s bad enough from almost a mile away.  It would be phototoxic to live right next to Allen Distribution and their warehouses.  That’s not the kind of Legacy I would choose for my family.

The Municipal Ordinance Problem

Municipalities do not understand the problem or take it seriously.  They get caught with their ordinances sorely lacking and unable to protect their people from the onslaught of round the clock warehouse lighting at ridiculous levels.  This is especially true in rural areas.  While I did have a good conversation with Upper Allen Township, their ordinances (or lack of) are of little use.  Developers and warehousing take advantage of this.  Residents just have to suffer through it, I guess.  It’s not the way it should be.

Mark