Brighter Street Lights Draw Mainly Cheers, But Some Jeers, While American Medical Ass'n Raises Health Concerns (And Some Cities Respond By Cooling Them A Bit)
Amnesia File: It's latest chapter in reversing City Hall self-inflicted wound that imposed public-despised yellow lights during Carter Admin "energy crisis"
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(January 8, 2017, 9:30 a.m.) -- Social network dispatches and reader emails to LBREPORT.com reflect mostly praise, plaudits, gratitude -- and relief -- for brighter light-emitting-diode street lighting now being installed citywide.
However some residents say the new brighter lights seem too harsh...and in June 2016, the American Medical Association issued a cautionary "guidance" (text below) advising that high intensity LED lighting may pose unseen health risks...and some cities are considering cooling down their LED lights a bit to levels AMA considers safer.
And just weeks ago, a CA Superior Court ruled that Monterey City Hall violated the CA Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) by not conducting environmental review before deploying the significantly brighter new lights.
[Scroll down for further.]
Recent comments on a Wrigley neighborhood Facebook page have been overwhelmingly positive
Digging the new LED lights on my street (Golden south of Hill). Pic on the right is old style lighting (Golden north of Hill). Way better!!!
The creepers out in the middle of the night trying to steal will not like these new LED's!
Love the new lights, it will cut down on crime.
Absolutely agree.
Looks great! We walk our dogs in the evening and something that really bothers me is how many homes don't even have a porch light on. With dusk to dawn sensors and energy saving LED's it can be a no brainer that would make the whole neighborhood and even the homeowner safer.
I love the LED lights I'm so glad that the city spend money on doing this here in our neighborhood
Personally I LOVE them!! It makes the street much brighter and in time hopefully with deter crime from happening in our neighborhood! Thank you Long Beach!! :)
[M]y street has them and there's no glare or anything just brightens the street and I like them alot better
Agree I definitely am enjoying these new LED lights I think it will definitely affect crime and make us all feel safer
Among reader emails to LBREPORT.com:
Redondo Avenue from Ocean to Pacific Coast Highway has been fit with the new LED street lights. I drive that route every early morning and the new lights are great. Gone are the old yellowish sodium glares; we now have real light again.
Hope to see more of these coming in.
However some Long Beach residents say the new Light Emitting Diode (LED) lights seem too harsh and too glaring:
The LED streetlights have finally come to our street. Uay for the energy savings; meh on the color; but good grief the glare is really obnoxious! If there was an option to have these skirted, I'd vote for it in a heartbeat.
I am worried. Everywhere I've seen blueish LEDs the glare is very difficult for me (glaucoma related lens replacement). I've spoken to many who are also negatively affected. It isn't just aesthetics for me although that would be enough to stop them if I could.
Based on what I've read (and know about personally, since I work with lighting professionally) I think skirting the fixtures could be a very effective compromise. It's like a sun visor for the street light.
My whole house is lit up!
Harsh lighting.
I spoke to Mayor Robert Garcia and others abut this but no one seemed to take it seriously. Roberto Uranga and Dee Andrews is there anything that can be done?
You have to contact Roberto Uranga's..office. The mayor's office told me that they are adjustable
I was all like what the? my whole living room is lit up!
I love them! Now our street isn't so dark! haha too bad your living room is lit up, just close up the blinds :)
Over six months ago, the American Medical Association issued a cautionary guidance indicating that high intensity LED lighting may pose unseen health risks...and the AMA's statement (text below) has led some cities to consider cooling their LED lights down to what AMA considers a safer level.
On June 14, 2016, the American Medical Association issued the following media release:
[AMA text] Strong arguments exist for overhauling the lighting systems on U.S. roadways with light emitting diodes (LED), but conversions to improper LED technology can have adverse consequences. In response, physicians at the Annual Meeting of the American Medical Association (AMA) today adopted guidance for communities on selecting among LED lighting options to minimize potential harmful human and environmental effects.
Converting conventional street light to energy efficient LED lighting leads to cost and energy savings, and a lower reliance on fossil-based fuels. Approximately 10 percent of existing U.S. street lighting has been converted to solid state LED technology, with efforts underway to accelerate this conversion.
"Despite the energy efficiency benefits, some LED lights are harmful when used as street lighting," AMA Board Member Maya A. Babu, M.D., M.B.A. "The new AMA guidance encourages proper attention to optimal design and engineering features when converting to LED lighting that minimize detrimental health and environmental effects."
High-intensity LED lighting designs emit a large amount of blue light that appears white to the naked eye and create worse nighttime glare than conventional lighting. Discomfort and disability from intense, blue-rich LED lighting can decrease visual acuity and safety, resulting in concerns and creating a road hazard.
In addition to its impact on drivers, blue-rich LED streetlights operate at a wavelength that most adversely suppresses melatonin during night. It is estimated that white LED lamps have five times greater impact on circadian sleep rhythms than conventional street lamps. Recent large surveys found that brighter residential nighttime lighting is associated with reduced sleep times, dissatisfaction with sleep quality, excessive sleepiness, impaired daytime functioning and obesity.
The detrimental effects of high-intensity LED lighting are not limited to humans. Excessive outdoor lighting disrupts many species that need a dark environment. For instance, poorly designed LED lighting disorients some bird, insect, turtle and fish species, and U.S. national parks have adopted optimal lighting designs and practices that minimize the effects of light pollution on the environment.
Recognizing the detrimental effects of poorly-designed, high-intensity LED lighting, the AMA encourages communities to minimize and control blue-rich environmental lighting by using the lowest emission of blue light possible to reduce glare. The AMA recommends an intensity threshold for optimal LED lighting that minimizes blue-rich light. The AMA also recommends all LED lighting should be properly shielded to minimize glare and detrimental human health and environmental effects, and consideration should be given to utilize the ability of LED lighting to be dimmed for off-peak time periods.
The guidance adopted today by grassroots physicians who comprise the AMA's policy-making body strengthens the AMA's policy stand against light pollution and public awareness of the adverse health and environmental effects of pervasive nighttime lighting.
To view the full eight-page report by the AMA's Council on Science and Public Health (click here.)
By September 2016, the Washington Post reported that "Some cities are taking another look at LED lighting after AMA warning" (at this link.)
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For months, Long Beach resident Ann Cantrell has tried to bring the AMA-raised issue to Long Beach City Hall's attention. On January 6, 2017, Ms. Cantrell emailed all nine Councilmembers and the Mayor, stating, "When the first LED lights were installed in downtown Long Beach, I was told by Public Works that our LED lights are not the lighting temperature which is judged harmless to the environment. I was also told that in order to get shields on the bright lights, citizens had to complain. As far as I know, there has been no CEQA evaluation of Long Beach LED lights. Before any more replacements, I believe this should take place."
LB's soon-ro-be-removed yellowish and dim street lights are actually a visible improvement over more deeply yellowish and less bright-appearing street lights that city officials chose to install in the late 1970s and thereafter. That action stemmed from a City Hall decision to follow a policy advanced during President Carter's administration to address what it called an "oil energy crisis." (The policies had drivers waiting in lines on rationed days to buy gasoline, and limited to 55 mph on highways.)
In that political atmosphere, LB City Hall decided it was smart to install low-pressure sodium lights, which consumed less energy, but only produced light within a relatively small portion of the visible light spectrum. The result cast a deep yellow pall across the city which, to human eyes appeared dim (although engineers with light meters measuring foot-candles showed otherwise.)
A civic rebellion followed, and after a grassroots group tried legal and political measures that fell short, city officials grudgingly concluded that the low sodium lights were a blunder. Talk of a costly assessment district to replace the yellow lights was a political non-starter and a stalemate continued until then-City Manager Jim Hankla came up with a remedy in the mid 1990s that (like many good remedies) was elegant in its simplicity.
The City hired a private firm, City Light and Power, to operate the city's lighting system for roughly what the city was then-paying to run the system itself and as part of the deal, the private firm agreed to replace the low pressure sodium lights with high pressure sodium lights. The high pressure sodium lights (being phased out now) produced a broader spectrum of light and although still yellowish, were an e improvement over the even more deeply yellow lights that LB endured through parts of two decades. The LED lights produce a much wider spectrum of light, closer to white light in displaying colors...and do so at less cost.
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In 2011, the City began running tests with SCE installing the new LED street lights in a small area to see how they performed.
On October 30, 2015, the City of Long Beach announced it would begin retrofitting its intersection street signals and current yellowish street lights with Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)...and the result should be brighter and whiter/less yellow illumination with reduced energy and maintenance costs.
A City Hall release said the new LED lights are "expected to annually reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 7,297 tons and save $1 million in energy and maintenance costs." It said the first phase of the project would replace 1,750 intersection lights funded by a $659,000 Port of Long Beach Community Mitigation Grant and will take about two months to complete. The second phase was scheduled to begin in early 2016 and continue through the year, replacing over 24,000 yellowish high-pressure sodium lights with LED streetlights. The cost of about $6.1 million is being covered in part by SCE rebates of $3.2 million to the City for the retrofit. "Through various savings, it is estimated the City will recover the project's costs in three years," the City's release said.
City Hall's release also indicated that the LEDs can be integrated into a "smart network" that -- in the future -- could enable brightness controls with the touch of a button for public safety responders...but offered no time frame when this feature would be deployed in Long Beach. The Oct. 2015 City Hall release said only that planned installations were scheduled by completion by the end of 2016 or early 2017.
On December 1, 2015, an item came to the City Council agendized as "Authorize the City Manager to execute all documents necessary to enter into onbill financing agreements with Southern California Edison, to fund the conversion of the City's streetlights to light emitting diodes (LED) fixtures..." describing the process in detail in this agendizing memo; the vote (motion by Andrews, seconded by Price) to approve was 9-0 (Yes: Gonzalez, Lowenthal, Price, Supernaw, Mungo, Andrews, Uranga, Austin, Richardson)
Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia has previously cited the brighter street lights (a city staff-driven process) as an accomplishment and may do so in his upcoming "State of the City" address but to our knowledge hasn't publicly acknowledged the issues raised by the AMA and by Ms. Cantrell or indicated what he thinks the City ought to do now, if anything, on the issue...nor have any of LB's policy-setting Councilmembers.
