Blue light has a dark side
What is blue light? The effect blue light has on your sleep and more.
Updated: August 13, 2018Published: May, 2012
📷Although it is environmentally friendly, blue light can affect your sleep and potentially cause disease. Until the advent of artificial lighting, the sun was the major source of lighting, and people spent their evenings in (relative) darkness. Now, in much of the world, evenings are illuminated, and we take our easy access to all those lumens pretty much for granted.
But we may be paying a price for basking in all that light. At night, light throws the body's biological clock—the circadian rhythm—out of whack. Sleep suffers. Worse, research shows that it may contribute to the causation of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.
What is blue light?
Not all colors of light have the same effect. Blue wavelengths—which are beneficial during daylight hours because they boost attention, reaction times, and mood—seem to be the most disruptive at night. And the proliferation of electronics with screens, as well as energy-efficient lighting, is increasing our exposure to blue wavelengths, especially after sundown.
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HEALTH SCARE
Fears new LED street lights cause cancer insomnia, nose bleeds and even miscarriages as council is accused of ‘secret 5G wifi trials’
Gateshead Council has been forced to debunk conspiracy theories that secret government transmitters are attached to streetlights.
THE LOCAL authority at the centre of a row over the safety of a LED street lighting controller has been moved to issue a public statement following mounting fears among residents.
Gateshead Borough Council in the north of England took the unusual step of publishing a rebuttal of claims that its wireless central management system is a secret government experiment with 5G transmitters that is killing birds and insects, as well as causing nose bleeds and insomnia among the local community. It also rejected the charge that it was increasing the risk of cancer.
THE STATEMENT IN FULL
We are aware that certain individuals are frightening local people with false stories about the street lights in Gateshead – despite the fact we, and others, have told them repeatedly that their allegations are entirely false.
For your reassurance, we’d like to set the record straight.
• Gateshead Council DOES NOT use 5G technology in any of its street lights, or in any other capacity. It has never done so.
• The street lights in Gateshead will not give you cancer.
• The street lights will not induce miscarriages in pregnant women, or cause insomnia, or nosebleeds, and they are not killing all the birds and insects.
• Gateshead Council is NOT carrying out secret government trials in 5G technology via our street lights.
We don’t know how these conspiracy stories start, but we are happy to report that this is exactly what these are. These tales are completely untrue and you should ignore them.
Please be assured that there is no scientific basis or credible evidence for any of these scare stories about street lights causing cancer and other illnesses.
We’ve taken advice from Public Health England who reviewed guidance issued by the World Health Organisation, the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation and others, and they have confirmed that there is no risk.
We ask you to share this information with your friends and neighbours as we understand that some residents have been badly frightened by these tales, and the more people who understand that they are completely false, the better.
It said certain individuals were ‘frightening local people with false stories’. This is believed to refer to campaigners who have questioned the council’s motivations and uploaded videos to YouTube outlining the risks from the lights.
‘Gateshead Council is NOT carrying out secret government trials in 5G technology via our street lights,’ it said.
‘We don’t know how these conspiracy stories start, but we are happy to report that this is exactly what these are. These tales are completely untrue and you should ignore them.
‘Please be assured that there is no scientific basis or credible evidence for any of these scare stories about street lights causing cancer and other illnesses.
‘We’ve taken advice from Public Health England who reviewed guidance issued by the World Health Organisation, the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation and others, and they have confirmed that there is no risk’.
Abstract
The safety of human exposure to an ever-increasing number and diversity of electromagnetic field (EMF) sources both at work and at home has become a public health issue. To date, many in vivo and in vitrostudies have revealed that EMF exposure can alter cellular homeostasis, endocrine function, reproductive function, and fetal development in animal systems. Reproductive parameters reported to be altered by EMF exposure include male germ cell death, the estrous cycle, reproductive endocrine hormones, reproductive organ weights, sperm motility, early embryonic development, and pregnancy success. At the cellular level, an increase in free radicals and [Ca2+]i may mediate the effect of EMFs and lead to cell growth inhibition, protein misfolding, and DNA breaks. The effect of EMF exposure on reproductive function differs according to frequency and wave, strength (energy), and duration of exposure. In the present review, the effects of EMFs on reproductive function are summarized according to the types of EMF, wave type, strength, and duration of exposure at cellular and organism levels.
Keywords: Electromagnetic field, Reproduction
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